Armored Core: Solace
by The Angelus
Summary: Non-canon AC storyline, constructive critism is appreciated. I hope you enjoy my interpretation of one of the greatest games of all time. The chapters will come out in accordance to how well this story does. Cheers, and review if you can please ;
1. Chapter 1: Problems

**Solace - Chapter 1**

Terminology

**MT** - The Muscle Tracer (MT) is the precursor to the Armored Core. MTs are the most frequent enemies in the storyline, aside from other ACs. They come in various varieties, such as mobile gun turrets, powered suits, tank-like quadrupeds, and much more. Some MTs even resemble Armored Cores. Certain variations of MTs are transformable, such as the Scimitar MT, which has the capability to transform from a bipedal unit with a large top to a very fast and agile hit-and-run fighter.The Scimitar MT possesses moderate weapons capabilities, though a squad or two of the Scimitar can easily destroy an unwary Armored Core.

**Cored MT Unit****[ Armored Core **- The full name for a Muscle Tracer that is not mass-produced as a single unit in bulk, Cored MT Units are much more powerful than their counterparts and are built differently. Instead of a single set of parts being used, and different models of the MT being built, an Armored Core is built from several different interchangeable parts, to allow maximum customization by their pilots. Some Armored Cores have also been custom made, and the corporations have not reproduced their parts. Comprised of head, core, arms, legs, boostes fcs, extension, inside and optional parts. They are said to be an extention of the pilots soul, no two are alike.

**Raven's Ark** - The successor to Global Cortex in the region in which the story takes place. Like its previous incarnations, the Ark (as its known in shorthand), is a neutral "mediation" organization responsible for setting up contracts between Ravens and the Corporations. The Ark has one primary stipulation: Ravens shall not directly accept a contract from a client without going through the Ark first.

**Mirage** - The largest and most powerful of the corporations. Despite their impressive strength, Mirage is still expanding into the region and is meeting with fierce opposition from Navis, a smaller corporation already heavily entrenched in the region. Mirage has its eye on Navis' unique assets and is not above starting a war to acquire them.

**Crest** - The second largest corporation behind Mirage. Crest is also working its way into the region but seems to be too concerned with self-defence and preservation than to stick its nose in the escalating conflict between Mirage and Navis, at least not too often. If push comes to shove though, Crest has an army of private AC pilots led by the intimidating Raven pilot known as Genobee ready to step into the fray.

**Kisaragi** - One of the smaller corporations. Kisaragi is a technical innovator always on the look out to acquire new resources and refurbish lost technologies to help their advancement. Kisaragi remains a primarily selfish and opportunistic player, offering aid in one hand and striking out with the other when the time is right. They have a small alliance with Navis for the time being.

**Navis** - A new corporation formed very recently. Navis has a monopoly on a new resource and control over the region of the world where this resource can be found. Their all out refusal to divulge any information on this resource or share it with the other corporations have lead to rivalries and even conflicts with the other corporations. Mirage is proving to be Navis' chief rival.

**USE** - A local weapons and MT manufacturer. USE tries not to involve itself in the current conflict and continues to remain neutral and focus only on MT research and development.

**Organization for Administrating Enterprise (OAE)** - A bureaucratic organization designed to police the corporations and keep them all in check. The organization is quite ineffective and is often bullied into complying with the wishes of the larger corporations. Mirage constantly uses the OAE to its own advantage.

**Ravens**- The mercenary pilots of the large armored mecha known as AC's, the majority are freelance and work whatever jobs are available for the best pay. But some are fiercely loyal to certain companies alone and will only accept jobs from them.

**Operator**- A person designated to a specific raven. Their job is to relay mission information, updates and provide any assistance the raven requires.

**Introduction**

A young boy stood alone in a desolate wasteland that was once a sprawling city. The city of Paris. Over the distant din of war his plaintive cries could be heard, 'Maman! Maman?!' He took several steps forward through the rubble and tripped over some debris, cutting one side of his face badly as he hit the ground. However, he did not cry but painstakingly got to his feet and continued his search for his mother as the blood coursed down his face. He called out again, and the noticing the area he was in was somewhat familiar he started to limp along more quickly. He stopped suddenly...and looked forward at a house - his home, or what was left of it stood smoking. Part of an AC was buried in the rubble and it looked almost impossible that anyone was left alive there. He slowly made his way to the ruin and peered through a broken window at the carnage inside. He froze...there was a a body, half exposed lying beneath all the rubble, a very familiar body. He rushed through the broken window getting small cuts and scrapes and raced towards the broken form. It was his mother, and beneath her his little sister. It appeared that she had died trying to save the young one but to no avail. He stoof over there bodies for a moment before crumpling to his knees. Tears flowed down his face, mixing with the blood still there creating a horrid mask of sorrow. Then the sobs came, heartwrenching cries of pain. He cried for what seemed like hours, and as he was so focuses on his inner pain, he did not notice the world around him. He didn't notice as a black AC marched up from behind and stood there watching him. He didn't notice as it lowered its weapon towards him. Finally after so long he looked backwards into the single red eye of the AC and said to it, 'Did...did you do this?' The AC didn't respond, it just stood there gun lowered, its crimson eye seemingly mocking him. Tears of anger and hate began to well in his eyes and he screamed in rage as a bright light enveloped him...

'BLANC! Wake the fuck up, incoming!!!' Sikas yelled over the comlink.

'Shit.' Blanc replied calmly, before no less than 8 missiles collided into him 'killing' him instantly.

'Alright get them out of there,' a voice said over the intercom. And suddenly the battlefield hologram vanished and was replaced by a mid sized room with several surly looking attendants and a downright livid director.

'What the hell was that Blanc?' Sarah Morris asked him sweetly. Sarah Morris, director of the ARK's testing facilities. A cool character, she knew she wanted this position and went straight for it. Apparently sleeping with the right set of people gets you places hard work and determination don't...but thats another story.

'Well ma'am, me 'n' Sikas here were...' Sikas interrupted him at the mention of his name.

'Hell no don't bring me into the equation that was all you buddy, all you.' And with that he walked out of the room, but not before giving a two finger salute to his girl who was in the room, after which he promptly walked into the doorframe. She giggled, while he continued out looking slightly mollified. 'Good ole Sikas' Blanc thought fondly. He turned back to face the current problem at hand, Ms. Screw-You-For-A-Promtion.

'As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupte...' A knock sounded at the doorframe Sikas had recently imprinted with his body. An attendant was now standing there, giving a little bow of respect to Ms. Morris he walked over to Blanc and said, 'You've got an important mission today sir, I was ordered to come get you right away so you can prep and complete all necessary customizations to your AC now.' He handed Blanc his mission details and other important documents regarding the job. Blanc looked up at Ms. Morris with a a litte grin and before he could open his mouth she said to him, 'Go...just go...', in an exasperated voice. He tipped her a wink and headed out towards the hangar. On the way through the Ark Blanc ran into many a raven he knew and stopped with some of them to chat about going-ons in the world and such. He looked over through the group in the common area and noticed Evangel and Ammo having a spirited conversation...he was tempted to join them but he did have a mission waiting with Sikas and...'Ah crap' he thought to himself, 'I'm late already'. So instead of going over and havig a drink with the two rivals over there he just gave them a wave and sped off towards the hanger.

'Your late.' Sikas said in disdain, ' come on we gotta get all our gear loaded and locked so we can get to the dropzone on time, and I'll be damned if we're late!'

'Alright alright mother, no worries we're fine,' Blanc chuckled as he threw an arm around Sikas' shoulders. The two of them went way back, all the way back to the orphanage where they both spent the early part of their childhoods growing up. As friends they were inseparable, as partners they were untouchable.

'Alright I'm gonna go suit up, meet you back here in 5 bud.' Blanc said. Sikas nodded nonchanlantly, and stared up at his AC, his pride and joy, Dragonuv. A long range AC, the green and black behemoth sported a long range sniper rifle in its right hand and in its left a shorter ranged but more powerful sniper rifle. Many ravens in the beginning had mocked this design due to its apparent lack of close combat weaponry, but after noting the degree of accuracy Sikas possessed when it came to these dual sniper rifles, the talk soon stopped. Mounted on the back of Dragunov was yet another high powered weapon. 1 shoulder mounted laser rifle on the left and extra ammo tank on the right to compensate for possible missed shots. However, Sikas did not miss.

Blanc returned in a matter of minutes, 'Alright we good to go?' 'Mhmm', came the reply. Blanc walked up to his AC, and stared at it a moment before taking the stairs up to the cockpit. Noir, to remind him of his past he had named his AC after the black darkness which possessed his heart as he fought. The stark white AC Noir was a close-mid range model, and excelled at it as Dragunov excelled at long range. Equipped with dual chainguns, at close range it was a force to be reckoned with. Mounted on its back were 1 set of vertical missiles and a set of titan missiles. The latter had ended a good many decisive battles. Blanc settled himself into the cockpit and performed his systems check, as he watched Sikas do the same thing from with his AC. Over the hanger intercom a voice spoke, 'AC's Noir and Dragunov you are cleared for launch, have a good one boys!.' The overheard buzzed, then went silent. Blanc said to Sikas over comlink, 'I wonder who we'll be having today as our operator?'

'Who knows?' Sikas said with a smirk.

'...Why are you smili...' Blanc began.

'Hiiii guys!!!' Amy chirped happily. Amy Diokno, a fairly well known operator in the Ark, she had a tendancy to...be overtly cheerful, even in the midst of battle she could be heard cheering you on or telling you you had no chance in hell, in that same sickeningly, cheerful voice. Many joked around the Ark that the ones that died while she was the operator did so on purpose to escape her. And also, Blanc disliked her with a passion, as Sikas well knew.

'Merde.' Blanc muttered.

'What was that? I don't speak french like you do so your gonna have to use english for me m'kay darlin?' she said in a singsong sort of way. Meanwhile Sikas was shaking in laughter and Blanc grumbled some more curses in french.

'Alllrighty then guys heres the deal, the job your doing is for Mirageee and they want you to hiijack a shipment going towards Naviss, something to do with that new resources? Who knows...anyways its in an armored vehicle annnd opposition will include your standard MT's and possibly 1 or more AC's" she sang happily, 'if theres anything else you guys need to know just give me a ring! Oh and what is Blanc saying SIkas??'

'You probably wouldn't want to know m'dear,' said Sikas still choking back laughter. She gave him a strange little smile then cut the connection. As soon as she cut it Sikas let loose with a howl of laughter.

'Oh...my...God...the look on your face when you saw...hahahaha,' he continued laughing, as Blanc gave him dirty looks. 'Ah...that was good,' Sikas said wiping tears away from his eyes, 'alright partner we ready to do this?'

'You bet your ass I am.' Blanc replied.

'I'd rather not bet my ass...I'm very fond of it,' Sikas responded.

'Queer.'

'Hehe.'

**1.5 Hours later...20:00 The Dropzone.**

Blanc checked the time on his console display, 'Sikas should be in position', he thought. On cue a trail of dust appeared on the horizon. 'Ah...theres our mark,' he noted, then used the advanced optics on Noir to zoom in on the column of dust rising in the distance. As he peered at the onscreen display he noted 6 MT's and 2 AC's travelling beside the car in formation. He breathed a sigh of relief, nothing to be worried about he told himself, you and Sik have gotten through a hell of a lot worse...hell of a lot worse. He closed his eyes and memories of that night flooded back beneath his closed lids. He opened them as he heard an incoming call. It was Sikas. ' Here we go. What strategy are we going with this time?' he asked.

'I think we'll go with Operation: Diplomatic Immunity...what do you think?' Blanc replied grinning as he said so. Sikas began to laugh and gave him the thumbs up. As twisted as it was, they had created several games within their line of work, naming them operations ranging from, Operation: Blow it all to Hell, which was simply what the name indicated, to the more subdued Operation: Diplomatic Immunity which comprised of one of them stalling with chat and seeing how long they could go without a shot being fired. Sikas held the record at 4 minutes. The column grew closer and closer until finally they got within sight range of Noir. The sleek white machine looked slightly intimidating as the rays of the setting sun reflected off its surface. Sikas whispered to Blanc, 'Dude you look pretty badass out there, with the sun and stuff.'

Blanc whispered back 'Yeah I totally just noticed how cool it looks from the external cam you think I coul...'

'UNKNOWN AC, IDENTIFY YOURSELF IMMEDIATELY OR YOU WILL BE FIRED UPON,' a voice echoed over loudspeaker. Here we go, Blanc thought, and took a deep breath.

'Hey there, I seem to be lost do you guys know where...' Blanc cut off as a warning shot was fired beside Noirs feet.

'Hahaha dude you didn't even last 5 seconds without a shot being fire you blow!' Sikas gloated over comlink.

'...Can we just shoot them now?' pleaded Blanc. Sikas smirked for a moment, then the next moment both him and Blanc were different people. There was no talking, they worked as a single cohesive unit. Sikas peered into the telescopic sight, and appearing not even to aim, fired. The round drilled a hole through the furthest MT's head and it erupted in a cloud of fire and molten metal. The AC's and the MT's looked around to see where the shot came from, only to turn around again and find Noir gone. They scanned the ground searching for footsteps to lead them to him...they found none. One of the MT pilots yelled in fear as Noir crashed down on him from above and unloaded the dual chainguns into his mech. Noir jumped off and amid a flurry off bullets and missiles sought cover behind a large boulder.

'CF,' Blanc muttered as he switched weapons, activating the vertical missile launcher.

'Roger' responded Sikas, who sent another shot drilling into the torso of an MT. By now the MT's and the AC's had locked onto Sikas' position and half were moving to engage, when 2 boosters could be heard behind the rock Noir was stationed. They all looked towards the sources of the noise and fired...at 2 missiles sent up as a distraction. With a whining noise Noirs overboost kicked in and it shot out amid the enemies. Casually Blanc stuck each chaingun into the leg joints of two MT's and fired them rapidly dismembering the legs and reducing combat potential exponentially. Sikas had removed the camoflage tarp covering Dragonuv and while kneeling down upon one knee brought the laser rifle its shoulder to bear. He whispered 'Inc.' and Blanc shot out of the projected danger zone. As the laser rifle completed its final preparations, the 2 AC pilots cause sight and overboosted away, seconds before the the rifle discharged and created a new crater where the battle was previously taking place. The residual EMP field the laser created upon impact shorted out the MT's still lingering in the area. This left only Noir and Dragonuv against the two enemy AC. Noir turned to face Dragonuv in the distance and dropped its chainguns. Dragonuv stared back and dropped one of his rifles. With those two simple acts, they had just increased their AC's mobility by 12. They could hear the two enemy AC's over the general channel mocking their stupidity.

'What you guys gonna fight us with your hands and just one weapon? Or your back mounted weapons? Hahaha this is easy money for me, lets go clean them up...or maybe you surrender is that it? Well sorry but I have orders to completely destroy any attempt at intereference and right now well, your classified as interference,' the cocky young AC pilot said.

The sun finally set.

And with that, all that was clearly visible on Dragonuv and Noir were the glowing red optics. That is until Noir activated his back mounted missile launcher, which glowed a dull shade of orange in the receding daylight as it prepped for launch. Blanc released the limiter function on his vertical missiles and released all remaining missiles within the launcher. The recoil shook him immensly within his AC, but he never blinked once, as the volley of missiles headed towards to rookie pilots. Meanwhile Dragonuv had been boosting downhill to join the fray as, he switched to his backmounted cannon which, whined as it charged up once more. Dragonuv skidded to a stop on its knees and the end of the cannon glowed brightly.

"Bang," whispered Sikas, "Your dead."

'What..wha..what the hell?! AhhhhH!!' the enemy pilot yelled as he and his partner both opened up with their weapons a pair of machine guns, and back mounted missiles as they tried to evade the onslaught of missiles and energy blasts. It didn't last long. In an amazing display of acrobatic prowess and teamwork Noir ran forward sheltering the lighter Dragonuv, who by this time was back on its feet, from several of the bullets that were on target. Sikas latched Dragonuvs' hand onto the back of Noir as Noir overboosted quickly and rapidly closed the distance between the rookie AC pilots and themselves. Blanc then braked extremely hard flipping Dragonuv overhead. As Sikas flew directly over the enemy AC's, with great precision he shot between the joints of both arms, severing them completely and landing unfazed behind the pilot. As the AC tried to bring its back mounted weapons to bear Noir appeared beside it almost immediately and used the remaining bullets in its chaingun to blow both legs off. The AC fell slowly with nothing to support it and lay there sparking.

The one rookie who had been running his mouth stood there speechless...but not for long, he opened up a channel and began to continue his tirade. This time including the words 'luck' and 'cheapness'. Blanc had had about enough and with a button activated his titan missiles. He locked on slowly as the rookie emptied round after round into Noir, but he didn't care. Once the confirmation lockon beep sounded he fired the large slow moving missile.

A note about titans. They will follow you indefinitely. They will not be destroyed by anti-missile devices. They are very deadly. Chances of survival after being hit by one are less than 5.

Apparently the rookie knew this information too because he began to boost around wildly in an attempt to dodge the slow moving bringer of death. He hadn't cancelled his comlink connection. He was sobbing over the link not knowing his enemies could see, hear...and feel. Blanc grabbed the side of his face as if he was in pain..._'Maman...Maman...!..'_ The enemy pilot was crying out for his mother. As Sikas watched in some amusement, he noticed Noir moving around awkwardly.

'Blanc? Whats going on?...Blanc??' he asked repeatedly. No response. Just the same clumsy movements of Noir making its way towards the sniper rifle he had dropped moments ago. Inside of Noir, Blancs' eyes were filled with tears, he could barely maneuver the controls to grab hold of the rifle laying in front of him. As the young pilots pleas became more insistent, he grabbed a hold of the rifle and locked onto the titan missile. Noir didn't have the specs that Dragonuv did when it came to sharpshooter combat, but Blanc was a crack shot. He targeted the titan missile, hands trembling slightly, vision blurred by tears and with precise aim he shot the titan missile before it connected with the AC. The resulting shockwave blew the rookies' AC out of the sky damaging it slightly but not too bad. Noirs hand dropped to its side, then released the rifle. Throughout the ordeal Sikas had been hailing Blanc through their private channel, but it was no use...he was in his own world, his own private, neverending nightmare.


	2. Chapter 2 : Testing 1,2,3

**Solace - Chapter 2**

Terminology

**The Controller** - An omnipresent artificial intelligence in charge of maintaining all aspects of mankind's underground refuge, Layered. The Controller's influence is so pervasive, so tightly interwoven into even the smallest facets of everyday life, that its existence is rarely given a second thought. The lives of all who dwell in Layered are inextricably tied to The Controller

**Layered** - A subterranean society. Layered is ruled by an AI simply known as "The Controller" which dictates nearly everything that goes on in this world.

**24:00 The Ark**

Blanc lay in bed staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep within his quarters. 'What a colussal clusterfuck that turned into,' he thought mildly to himself. After he had fired the titan upon the rookie, upon hearing the pilots cries of despair he had lost it completely and regressed into a child-like state...the same as that night. His face formed into a grimace as he remembered what he sought to put right. To others around the Ark Blanc was an easygoing, friendly raven who never failed to attract a small group wherever he went due to his general likability. Many also enjoyed the joke that was the names of him and his AC, Noir which was the whitest of white, and himself Blanc who was black. He was chided over these names ceaselessly, he took it in stride. However, he also had another not so coveted reputation on the battlefield. It was spoke of in hushed whispers late at night in the ark, that when Noir and Blanc went out on missions that they switched names and personas...Blanc becoming Noir...the darkness inside manifesting itself during battle and Noir becoming Blanc, the ying to his yang. Operators for Blanc and sometimes Sikas, said that when they were together it wasn't as bad, sometimes during the easier of the missions operators would jostle for the position of who would be communicating to them via comlink, simply because the conversations they had were priceless. On missions Blanc undertook alone, only one operator could stand the eerie silence and be unfazed. Flora was Blancs' operator for solo missions bar none. Many thought it was the perfect arrangement because Blancs onfield persona matched hers perfectly. However, hers never changed.

It was now, alone in his room that Blanc began to reflect upon his life from that fateful night till now...

"I'm gonna become an AC pilot," a young Blanc said passionately to a young Sikas. Sikas looked at him skeptically and went back to doing his homework on life during the Layered/Controller era. Blanc looked up reproachfully at Sikas' lack of enthusiasm on the subject.

"I'm serious!" he said sulkily,"I'm gonna grow up and become one, and then get that black AC...I know it did it...I know it..." And in a move that Sikas had come to predict when Blanc talked about his past, his hand reached up and gripped his head as though it were about to explode. Sikas got up and gently guided Blanc into a chair beside him.

"You should try not to get so worked up over it..." Sikas said sympathetically. Blanc looked up at him through angry eyes, and said more to himself than Sikas, "I will become one...a true Raven...the best..."

"Well Mr. I'm gonna be the best, how do you plan on entering the Raven exams with lose low marks of your hm?" Sikas chided him in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"Well...first off you could let me copy what you've already got done..." Blanc said slyly and in one motion whisked Sikas' homework off of the table and began to copy what he had written.

"HEY!" Sikas' yelled in mock anger and made a feeble attempt at snatching back his work. They quarreled and laughed that whole night as they toiled, and when the work was finished and they lay in their beds at the orphanage they discussed their future.

"AC pilots." Blanc said adamantly,"its the only course of action that makes sense after what we've been through..." Sikas sighed resignedly, in his mind though he silently agreed with every word Blanc said. His parents...his family had been killed in the same attack that had left Blanc an orphan. And upon meeting in the orphanage they formed a powerful bond of friendship. Mess with one and you took them both on was what the other boys there had learned.

"So what do you say?' Blanc raised himself up in his bed and stared intently at Sikas,"For our parents. For ourselves. And most importantly...for closure." Sikas closed his eyes for a moment before rolling over onto his side, facing away from Blanc.

"Well, I guess I had better become one," he said with some amusement," someones gonna need to make sure your dumbass doesn't die out there." He heard Blanc lie back in his bed and could almost picture the smile of satisfaction on his face. 'The cocky bastard,' Sikas thought dimly before he drifted off into sleep.

And so it began with that one promise shared late at night. Blanc and Sikas both applied to The Academy, an organization which determined those suited to become Ravens. Only the most promising candidates were accepted into the rigorous 6-year program, which pushed both the physical and mental boundaries of the students. It was an environment they both thrived in, coming out in many of their classes as the top students, instructors couldn't say enough good things about them. However, the highlight of their collective years at the Academy can be boiled down to one amazing event. The last test a a student must pass before ascending to the rank of Raven, was to pass a series of tests both in and out of an AC. These tests all cumulated to a mock battle between the student and their instructor, using blank rounds and empty warheads, this was the event that decided whether or not you were ready. Sikas and Blanc both made it to this stage with no problem and eagerly awaited the chance to show off the results of their training. As they sat in the observation room with the few other hopefuls who had made it this far, they chatted idly while watching the action down below in the arena. One of their peers, Evangel, was down there battling one of the instructors as they spoke. The purpose of these battles wasn't necessary to win, most of the time the rookies failed against the more experienced and well-equipped instructors. It was to observe their battle potential...and nothing brought out that better than a good sparring match.

"So what do you think Sik," Blanc asked looking up from the spectacle below,"hows Angel doin?'" Sikas studied the arena for a moment.

"Well..." he said slowly, "he's not doing too bad..pretty good actually. Nothing compared to us though." And tipped Blanc a wink. Blanc gave a light laugh, and returned to watching the arena battle. During these battles the rookies were given limited customization to work with to test how well they could work with the materials provided. Blanc mentally sized up both the AC Evangel and the instructor he was against, now recognized as Instructor Ivanov, were using. Evangels AC's was mid-close range model which was armed with a close range machine gun in the right hand and a long range laser blade known as the halbard for its reach. On its back there was one mid ranged radar and a small missile launcher. Ivanov was using a mid-long range model which itself sported a high powered rifle in the right hand and a medium powered rifle in the left. Its back mounted weapons consisted of a set of vertical missile launchers, which at the moment were activated and locked onto Evangels AC.

"This might be it..." Sikas said under his breath. All sets of eyes within the observation room were now glued to the battle below.

Evangels AC was now boosting in circles around the other AC, throwing up dust as it went.Suddenly, he charged straight to towards Ivanov. Sikas groaned loudly as Ivanov fired the missiles, and then in the blink of an eye switched to his rifles. Both rifles mercilessly pounded shell after shell into Evangels AC. One of the others in the room, a boy named Ammo, commented, "Those shots aren't doing anything, to his armor! He can win this if he keeps at it!" Sikas shot him a dirty look, and mutter something incoherent that sounded a lot like, "Cretin." He then said out loud, "Its over...the moment he charged straight at Ivanov it was over. The instructor planned this." Ammo looked at him like he was crazy, he began to retort but was silenced by a poke to the ribs from a friend beside him. He shrugged and sat down to watch the rest of the fight. Blanc never looked away but like Sikas knew what was about to occur. Evangel continued his head on rush towards Ivanov, raising his machine gun to fire and extending his arm blade. As he reached Ivanovs' position, the instructor sidestepped his rush and overboosted several hundred yards away. As Evangel slowly turned around to face Ivanov, the 4 vertical missiles the instructor had fired rained down upon his AC ended the match promptly. There was silence in the observation room.

"Wha...what just happened," Ammo asked, breaking the silence. Sikas looked at Blanc, "You wanna handle this one? It's my turn next anyways." Blanc looked up and nodded then shook Sikas' hand and wished him luck, before turning around and explaining what occured to Ammo and the rest in the room.

"Well, it was assumed by the majority of us that the instructor had locked onto Evangels AC the moment he activated his missiles right?" he asked. They all nodded. He continued," But suppose the instructor didn't lock onto Evangel...but the very ground he himself was standing on? Thats' why Sikas said it was over the moment he rushed him head on. Because it truly was. It was a great display of foresight and ability on the instructors part." he summarized. The rest of the group sat thinking over his words. A young-ish looking girl raised her hand in an attempt to ask him a question. A flicker of amusement passed over his face before he nodded for her to go ahead.

"Well...oh my names Sandy by the way Sandy Roberts." she gave him a little wave, which he returned with a small two fingered salute. "Well I was wondering...would Angel have stood a chance if he didn't charge in or was the match over before it began?" Blanc pondered this for a moment then replied, "Evangel is an exceptional pilot, however his weakness lies in that if battle is drawing out longer than he likes, he loses his temper and rushes in headlong. This weakness is also a great strength in a certain way as is does throw one off, if not used to this tactic." She nodded ferverantly. "So I guess that Angel would have stood a better chance if he had kited the instructor and fire his machine gun...so the short answer to your question is yes." She thanked him and began to talk to her friend.

Blanc turned back to the arena as the rest of them began to discuss the battle and his words. Rising up from the underground hangar he saw Sikas' AC making its way into the arena and smiled briefly, he almost felt bad for the instructor that would have to face either him or Sikas. Ivanov was also Sikas' instructor, so after a brief break and some minor repairs, his AC strode back out onto the field to face Sikas. There was some scattered talk about the design Sikas was using in his battle, many didn't think it was viable for combat. Blanc disagreed with them, as he looked over the AC his friend was piloting he wondered if people were so shortsighted that they couldn't see the genius behind the model. Sikas' AC which he had knickname Cypher temporarily, was a mid-long range model equipped with an energy shield on its left arm while its right had a large powerful sniper rifle. Mounted on its back was a vertical missile launcher along with another small rocket launcher. In the background Blanc could hear Ammo mocking the design of Sikas' AC, he looked up someone irritably and in a sweet voice asked, "If you could kindly shut the hell up, that would be super. Thanks." And turned back to the arena. Silence raged within the observation room as Ammo made his way over towards Blanc. He stood beside him and said, "Say that to my face." Blanc was about to stand up when a voice rang out through the room, "Oh sit down fatass, you wouldn't stand a chance against him. You wanna spend a week in the infirmary over your stupid comments?" Ammo turned around in surprise and grinned embarrassedly. It was Evangel back from the hangar, he walked into the room amid the buzz of questions and said, "Well guys..." he looked abashed for a moment, then a grin leaked out, " I'm a Raven." There was much congratulation and cheering at those words, before Evangel shushed them up and went to sit beside Blanc as they watch SIkas and Ivanov prepare for battle.

The starting siren sounded and it began.

At once it was apparent that neither one was holding back whatsoever, as Sikas launched a volley of missiles from both of his back mounted weapons, while boosting backwards and taking pot-shots whenever he could. Ivanov meanwhile was laying down a barrage of rifle fire in the tracks of Sikas' strategic retreat. Sikas strafed to the left and once again began to take shots at Ivanov, seemingly random shots to the untrained eye. However. Blanc knew Sikas' style and immediately saw what his battle strategy was. Meanwhile once more Ammo guffawed boarishly in the background ridiculing Sikas' style of combat. Ivanov continued his rifle barrage on Cypher, as he ran in zigzags towards him. Boosted backwards once more, keeping the distance between them large enough to take his shots unhindered, and for Ivanovs' shots to be less than accurate at that range. The few bullets that did come into contact with his AC only hit one part, his arm activated energy shield kept the damage to a minimum. Suddenly the back of Ivanovs AC spread open and they could hear the whine of a generator building up power for overboost, as it reached the pinnacle of it charge, Sikas stopped Boosting backwards and powered forward now straight towards the streak of silver that Ivanovs AC had become while in OB. Sikas activated his vertical missile launcher and targeted Ivanov, he fired three into the air and switched to the small rocket launcher, which he fired two more from. Switching quickly to his rifle he flew straight up into the air as Ivanov blew past below him, the small rockets targeting Ivanov were close on his tail as he swerved and dodged to avoid them. One lost its lock and crashed into the ground creating a small explosion, the other still on Ivanov was about to meet a similiar when Sikas targeted the rocket and shot it with his rifle. The small resulting explosion cause Ivanovs AC some damage to the leg, the part Sikas had been shooting at from the beginning. He fired 2 more small rockets at Ivanovs crippled AC, which he managed to dodge one of again but the second Sikas shot once more this time blowing it close to his AC's right arm, rendering the weapon and arm useless. Sikas still hovering in the air heard the whistle of the vertical missiles coming back down from their journey into the sky and released his boosters as they rushed past him eager to meet their designated target. Ivanovs AC was sparking from the entire right side and try as he might, he could not get it moving. The three missiles plowed into his AC causing a moderate amount of damage and Sikas was declared the winner.

Inside of the observation room an outbreak of talk follow this announcement, Blanc sat back as Evangel sat there in open-mouthed astonishment.

"Did you...I mean you saw...?" he stuttered, "man that guy is good...I barely put a scratch on Ivanov myself..." Blanc said nothing just continued to watch the arena as Cypher walked back to the hangar and several MT's carried the remains of Ivanovs AC off the battlefield. Blanc finally broke his stare at the arena and stood up and stretched and went to use the bathroom. When he came back, he noticed that Evangel was now sitting with that Sarah girl and her friends and was chatting it up with them, while his seat was apparently occupied by someone else at the moment. He looked over at Evangel, who gave a him a shrug and went back to flirting. Blanc walked over to the girl sitting in his chair and sat down beside her, she made an apologetic movement with her hands and got up to leave. "Its fine, was getting a little lonely sitting here anyways, mine names Blanc and you would be...?" he offered his hand to her. She looked at his hand... then smiled slightly and shook his hand. A girl behind them leaned forward and said to Blanc, "Don't waste your time cutie, shes mute anyways, you need a girl that can talk to you." The girl sitting beside him looked mollified as her face glowed with embaressment. She got up and made as if to leave, when Blanc reached out and grabbed her hand. He didn't know why he did or why he wanted this girl to stay but he did. He turned to the girl behind them and said, "Well thank you for your opinion Ms...?" "Andrews, Roquelle Andrews, "she piped out expectantly. "Well Ms. Andrews, first of all may I say that you have the tact of an elephant, and probably the waistline of one too. I make my own decisions thank you very much, now leave us alone," he said lightly. The girl was shocked into silence and got up and left the room, meanwhile Blanc still hadn't let go of the unknown girls hand. He realized he still grasped her hand and slowly let go, "Please stay," he said sincerely, "I'll do enough talking for the both of us." She smiled faintly and sat down again, as a new combatant entered the arena. He looked over at her through the corner of his eyes, she was quite pretty he admitted to himself...black hair with some stylish white streaks...a petite figure and full lips. He shook his head slightly...girls were distractions, he didn't need that right now, so he began to talk about the matches, then he began to tak about AC's, occasionally looking over at her to see if she was bored. However, it seemed quite the opposite, her eyes which he noticed were amethyst, were completely enraptured with what he was telling her. Once after she noticed him watching her she lowered her eyes and that ghost of a smile danced across her face. The door to the room opened up and as Blanc kept talking Sikas entered, he looked over and spotted Blanc and was headed over when he was intercepted by Evangel who led him over to the group of people in the center of the room. Blanc watched out of the corner of his eye as Evangel whispered something to Sikas, who then grinned widely and gave Blanc a large thumbs up, which was returned by the middle finger from Blanc. The girl beside him watched the whole thing and giggled soundlessly at the exchange of body language, as Blanc turned back and caught her smiling he said, "You should do that more often...' She looked at him questioningly. "You should smile more often," he said gently, as he turned back to the arena and watched the battle raging below. He didn't see as a single tear rolled down her cheek and she smiled shyly, nor did he notice as she gently rested her head first against the back of his seat, then his shoulder, until later when it was his turn to battle.

"Oi..." he prodded her with his finger, " hey wake u...mmfmffm," his voice muffled through a hand. Sikas looked at him sternly, "That is not the way you wake up a lady...poking them and saying 'oi'...yeesh haven't I taught you anything?" Blanc opened his mouth to retort but was silenced again by the hand. He looked up menacingly at Sikas who slowly removed his hand, and gently shook the young lady dozing on his friends shoulder. She awoke with a start, then blushed once more as she realized where she had been sleeping, Blanc gave a her a little hello then said, "Well its my turn to go wish me luck!" Sikas extended his hand and they shook, while the girl sat there looking slightly confused, as he walked out the door and down to the hangar, Sikas noticed her watching where he exited and said to her softly, "Hes going to be a Raven, the best." And settled back to watch the match. The young girl sat there and contemplated this information, before turning towards the arena and awaiting Blancs arrival.

Blanc entered the cockpit of his AC and started it up, he performed a full systems check before strapping himself into the metal behemoth known as Quicksilver. He lowered the helmet onto his head and immediately he was peering through the optics of the AC. He slide his arms and legs into the harness' provide and felt them contract and fit themselves to his body. He lifted his arm, and outside Quicksilvers arm was raised as well, he took several steps forward so he was standing on the elevator which would raise him into the arena. The AC computer made some last minute checks to harness pressure and a systems scan ensured that all was good and well. Blanc took a deep breathe and relaxed himself completely, or tried to as the elevator took him upwards to his last obstacle before becoming a raven. He saw the arena slowly come into sight bit by bit until at last the elevator docked with the arena field. He stepped off and looked up towards the observation box way above the arena. He turned towards it and waved. In his mind he could almost hear Sikas saying something (I can't believe he did that.), which warmed his heart greatly. He looked forward now as elevator opposite of him brought forth the instructor he was to fight. His instructor was a very severe, and tough woman by the name of Althea Mendez. She expected nothing but the best from those under her tutelage, she commanded respect and authority and recieved both from students and other instructors alike. Blanc expected this to be an interesting battle, but he was sure he would come out on top. Quicksilver was a close range model equipped with a halbard laser blade which he frequently brought to bear, in his right hand he held a standard issue rifle, and his back mounted weapons included a a standard missile launcher as well as chaingun which his AC had to kneel down to use. He glanced over at the AC that Instructor Mendez was piloting andwas fairly impressed. It had dual handguns, and a wicked looking linear canon mounted on the back. The latter of course being set to its lowest setting but still quite formidable. 'Figures the bitch would still use something like that in a match like this,' he thought in amusement. However, what really set her AC apart from the other instructors in todays tests were the hover legs she was on. Extremely fast, and agile it would prove difficult to overcome. Blanc himself had chose the fastest legs that were offered, but they still weren't anywhere close to the speed that those hover legs possessed. He grinned to himself, 'Thats why this win will be spectacular.' When the odds were stacked against him as they were now, his true potential shone. However, up in the booth Sikas was a bit concerned. "...That AC has triple the firepower of Quicksilver," he said under his breath. The girl sitting beside him looked over at him in alarm, as he went on talking more to himself than anyone else, "The spec difference between the two is phenomenal...however they forgot to factor in one thing," he said in satisfaction. The girl looked over at him curiously. He looked up at her, "Well you see, Blancs aim is second to mine meaning one thing. His aim is accurate to one hundredth of a unit with any gun," he said happily. She sat there awed and looked back down to the field where the final preparations were being completed.

The final siren sounded, signalling the beginning of the last battle.

Blanc unloaded with the rifle at Mendez, but in a flash she dodged them and hovered over quickly to Blancs position to began the assault with her dual pistols. These weapons were by no means the strongest, but being repeatedly pounded upon by them does start to have its effect upon armor. This fact became steadily apparent as the match progressed. Everytime Blanc would try to get into position to land a rifle shot, Mendez would quickly boost around kiting him while firing shots at him. Back in the observation box, Sikas sighed loudly and said, "Boy is she going to regret kiting him so much." It turns out he was correct.

As Mendez continued her relentless assault with her dual pistols, Blanc boosted backwards away from her and her kiting and headed straight for the air. In midair he switched to his back mounted chaingun, so that he landed in position on bent knee, cutting down on activation time exponentially. Mendez somewhat taken aback by this quick activation time tried strafing left and right to avoid the imminent barrage to little avail. The whirring sound of the chainguns rotation filled the arena, and soon it was replaced by the sound of 100 bullets per second slamming into either the arena walls or Mendez's AC. Mostly her AC. As her AC was battered by the shells, she overboosted quickly to her left, far too quickly to follow with the chaingun, so Blanc stood Quicksilver up and switched back to the rifle and began to chase after Mendez. She swung arund quickly in a short arc and lowered her hover legs to the ground while bringing forth the linear cannon. Blancs eye grew wide as he sped towards the charging cannon, he estimated that he had about 10 secs to get out of the path of the cannon or he was toast. Quickly strafing right then left and right again he assessed the one fatal weakness of the AC in front of him. While firing the linear cannon, AC's without tank legs or specially modified leg parts must remain stationary. He released the lock the weapon had to his hand and just as the cannon had finished charging and fired, he threw his rifle into the oncoming beam then boosted to his left. The beam discharged the blank shots in the rifle creating a moderate explosion which knocked Quicksilver out of the air and sent it crashed to the ground. Meanwhile, Mendez didn't get out of it so easily either, her linear cannon, after being blocked by the rifle had suffered some sort of technical failure and was rapidly losing power. She switched over to her handguns and once again resumed her hit and run tactics. Blanc meanwhile had pried Quicksilver out of the ground and was taking some damage from the handguns as he stood gathering his bearings. 'Thats it,' he thought and dropped his rifle. Mendez appeared puzzled by this move and stopped for a fraction of a second to ascertain what he was up to. She didn't have to guess for long as the slim purple looking blade materialized from his AC's left arm. Activating the back mounted missile launcher he kept her in his sights long enough to get a 4 missile lock on, he fired and immediately boosted straight after the missiles towards her. She saw the missiles coming and tried to outrun them in the process turning her back on Blanc. This was her fateful mistake. Never one to let opportunity go to waste, Blanc hit his overboost and caught up to her before the missiles did and with one thrust of the blade sank it into her generator from behind. As the hover started to dived into the ground he excuted a beautiful pirouette in mid-air which ended with the halbard blade slashing the head of the AC off and leaving a long jagged mark through what was left of the linear cannon. With one more quick movement Blanc impaled the AC through its core and lifted it up before throwing it to the ground. As Mendez hit the arena floor, Blanc over boosted once more past the fallen form of the AC, and stood with his back towards it as the missiles caught up with their target and the 4 plowed into it.

The announcer came on over the intercom and announced Blanc as the winner. Inside the observation box, people were ecstatic, "Did you SEE that?!" "Some top Ravens can barely do that stuff..." "Whats the guys name?" "That was hella cool..." Sikas looked a bit miffed, he looked over at the girl, "Were they all like this when I won my match?" he questioned her. She nodded vehemently. He sat back satisfied at this while she looked mildly amused. Back out in the arena more MT's came out to get the wreckage of Mendezs' AC while a medical vehicle also was out there to pry the unconscious Mendez out of the cockpit. 'Way to overdo it,' Sikas thought proudly. Sikas stood up, stretched and then yawned, "Well," he said, "I'm gonna go see the winner then call it a night." The girl looked slightly crestfallen. Sikas noticed this and added, "You can come too, I'll bet he'll be glad you were watching as well. Come on." She perked up at this and nodded slightly as she followed him out down towards the hangars.

Blanc pulled off his helmet and released the harnasses binding him to the AC. He climbed out of Quicksilver, pausing once to give it a quick pat with his hand, 'You did good buddy,' he thought. He climbed down from the load platform and slowly walked through the hangar and into the main Ark hallway, which was virtually empty. He was surprised, 'Guess not many late night sorties going on today,' he thought. As he walked through the hallway and made his way to his room, assuming Sikas would pop by anyways, he ran into the pair of them coming down from the observation box. "There he is...that was pretty brutal my good man, brutal indeed...well done," Sikas said grinning all the while. Blanc grinned back at him, and they bantered for awhile before Blanc noticed the girl standing off to the side. "Oh hey," he said in a pleased tone, "we're you watching too?" he asked. She nodded shyly and held out her hand for him to shake. He looked at Sikas nonplussed, reached out and shook her hand and said, "Thanks." Sikas looked at the two of them and told Blanc he would call him later. He walked away with a smile plastered on his face, leaving the two of them alone in the hallway in front of Blancs room.

They still held on to each others hands, as they stared into each others eyes. Moments passed before embaressment caught up with them and they let go. As she turned to walk away he called out to her,"What is your name??" She paused and turned back, giving him that smile again and placed her bag on the floor while fishing for something within. She pulled out a pen and paper and wrote something on it, which she folded. She replaced the pen, then walked over and handed him the piece of paper. Smiling once more at him she walked away up the corridor and around the corner. He looked at the paper and walked into his room, he smiled as he read what was written there and then fell asleep with what was written on his mind.

Flora.


	3. Chapter 3: The Bet

**Solace - Chapter 3**

"Rise and shine hobo, its 11!!" a voice said loudly. Blanc delved deeper into his covers and said groggily, "Just 3 more minutes _maman_..." and started to drift off to sleep again. He heard an exasperated sigh, and felt the covers being yanked off of him as the blinds opened automatedly. Blanc opened his eyes and blearily looked around before immediately regretting this decision. His pupils contracted violently at the light and he yelled in pain, as a voice he now identified as Sikas, laughed his ass off. Blanc murmered a few choice words before slowly getting out of bed and stretching. "I'm going to take back that key to my room if you keep this crap up..." he muttered. Sikas ignored what he said and began to talk to him as he went about getting ready, "Well its Saturday so thats good news, hurry up I promised Mell we'd meet her for lunch." Mellissa was Sikas' girl, and they were pretty much exclusive, unlike the vast majority of relationship here in the Ark. Many people fore-went the forming of relationships, seeing as how you could inadvertantly fight your better half on the the battlefield one day. They preferred one night stands and casual sex to anything meaningful. This however didn't stop Mell and Sikas from engaging in their relationship, a highly successful one at that. Blanc look slyly up at Sikas as he dressed and asked, "So bud when you gonna pop the question?" At that Sikas jumped and spilled his coffee all over his shirt, while Blanc laughed and headed to the bathroom to get dressed. "Not cool man..." Sikas said as he tried to mop the stain out of his shirt. "Now I gotta go get changed again..." he sighed. Blanc stuck his head out of the bathroom for a sec and said, "You can borrow one of my shirts, check in the drawer to the left." Sikas nodded and headed towards the left drawer which he then opened. It was filled with Blancs' boxers. Sikas yelled out some incoherent curse and began to pound on the bathroom door as Blanc resumed laughing and getting dressed at the same time. He opened the door to a slightly miffed Sikas who then promptly said, "Dude...you have a man thong." Blanc looked at him and said, "Sometimes I like to feel pretty," in a deadpan voice. They both burst out laughing, and when it subsided Sikas asked in a more serious voice, "Ok but seriously is it really yours?" Blanc gave him a cryptic little wink and walked out the door saying, "Lets go, Mell's awaitin'!" Sikas looked at the left drawer with some disgust on his face, shuddered once and then exited after Blanc.

They chatted as they made their way to the mess area of the Ark, encountering numerous aquaintainces along the way. As they entered the mess area they saw Mell sitting in the corner drinking some coffee and besieged by men all around her. Apparently several were trying to flirt with her from the smirks on their faces. Blanc felt Sikas tense up as he saw this, then held his shoulder as he tried to advance towards them. "Hold on," Blanc said, "lets see what she does...and if it becomes apparent we need to intervene then we shall." Sikas relaxed and sat down at the bar with Blanc as they continued to observe the scene before them. Two men leaned in close to Mell and began to talk to her, meanwhile she continued to drink her coffee as if nothing was happening. One of the men put his arm around her shoulders and Sikas made as if to stand up, he turned to look at Blanc angrily as Blanc again restrained him, when there was a yell of pain and the would be suitor was wearing Mells coffee all over his face as she looked on sweetly. Sikas sat down heavily and gave a light laugh. "Thats one crazy girl you got there," Blanc said easily, "however it looks as if the moment of our intervention is upon us." He pointed towards Mells table as two of the men advanced upon her. Still smiling innocently she said loudly, "Oh look my boyfriend is here!!" The two men paused and looked over at Sikas and Blanc, both of whom raised their drinks to them, took a swig and then sauntered over to her table. "Hi baby!" she said and ran over to Sikas and threw her arms around his neck. Blanc looked over at them slightly amused and said out of the corner of his mouth, "Your crazy." She flashed him that killer smile and then went back to hugging Sikas. "Hey hun, sorry to keep you waiting...was just enjoying the show from back there," he motioned over to the bar stools him and Blanc previously occupied. The both laughed a little at that, and began to banter randomly, still in each other arms as the two men from before approached them. Blanc stepped ahead and intercepted them, "Can I help you two fine gentlemen?" he asked in mock servitude. The one who still wore Mells coffee smirked and said, " Yeah, you can help us by getting the hell out of the way so we can finish our business with the little bitch over there." And made as if to push Blanc aside. Blanc caught his hand and stood his ground, his pilot persona rising to the surface. "I don't want to hear you ever call her that again," he said in a cold voice and began to apply pressure to the mans hand. The mans eyes widened and he tried to yank his hand from Blancs vice-like grip. Sikas who had been enraptured by Mells presence in his arm suddenly noticed the drastic change in Blancs demeanor and hurried forward leaving a somewhat puzzled Mell behind. He laid a hand one Blancs shoulder and as Blanc turned to face him he noted the absence of emotion in his features, meanwhile he kept squeezing the mans hand, tighter and tighter as he struggled to free himself. Sikas said to him softly, "Its okay man..let him go." Life returned to Blancs eyes and he let go of the man, who now that he had his hand back was feeling cocky once more. " I don't know who the fuck you think you are buddy but, I, the leader of the 12 Fangs Clan challenge you to a duel." The mess hall went silent at this proclaimation. "So what clan do you belong to huh?" he questioned, "bring them all and we'll crush them, and YOU." He stood there smug, waiting for a response. His partner behind him, did a double take of Blanc and tried to whisper something to his leader, now identified as Derek Lee.

_Derek Lee. Aka Banisher_

_AC: Dire Wulf_

_Prefering to go by his real name instead of his pilot name as so many pilots tend to do , this Raven has made a name for himself with the means he uses to fight._

_He never fights fair battles, always preferring ambush attacks and 12-1 combat. With the money won from various sorties, earned slowly in the beginning to due his penchant to hiring consorts, he has gathered together several like-minded individuals and started a clan known as 'The 12 Fangs'. The AC's this clan uses primarily are a cross between slow heavy AC's that pack a punch and run on tank treads, and quadruped AC's, which their clan has taken to calling 'Widows'._

_Some call him a coward because of his preferred style of combat, however he is an accomplished AC pilot and excels in the tried and true tactics of his training._

"So? What clan? Or are you too afraid to face our team?" he said even louder. There was no need to raise his voice however, seeing as how the hall was still as silent as it was before. All eyes were trained on Blanc, whose head was downcast. When he raised his head again, there was a small smile across his face, "Sure I'll face you and your clan, and I'll bring mine as well, we'll even up the stakes," he said slyly. He turned and motioned to Mell, "If you guys win, you can get her for a night." At this Sikas and Mells mouths both dropped open in shock. Blanc gave them a wink and turned back around to face Lee. "However, if you guys lose, you disband your clan and we get an AC part from each to do with as we please." Lee stared hungrily at Mell, who stared him back straight in the eyes, "Deal." he said. Blanc and him shook on it. "Since I challenged you its only fair that you choose where your buried," Lee said nonchantly. Without hesistation Blanc responded, "We'll duel you in the Forests Edge arena." Lee looked taken aback for a moment but recovered quickly and nodded with a smirk on his face. As Blanc walked away from him with an angry and livid Sikas and Mell, he heard Lee shout out, "FORESTS EDGE EVERYONE, IN 2 HOURS, COME WATCH THE DOWNFALL OF THIS ROOKIE!" Everyone in the mess hall laughed at this loud proclaimation, a random Raven nearby shouted out to Lee, "Do you even know who you just challenged?!" A couple other chimed in and jeered at him. Over Blancs shoulder Lee looked confused, and then finally heeding the prodding of his partner behind him leaned in and listened as he whispered the name of the pilot he had just challenged to a duel.

"Blanc"

Lee sat down quickly, as the rest of the ravens watching him burst into laughter, and left the mess hall to get ready for the duel. Lee sat there for a moment, speechless, then said to his partner, "No matter how good he is, or the stories about him...no one can take on 12 AC's...no one."

"Blanc...what the fuck was that!!!" Sikas nearly screamed at him, Blanc looked over at Sikas for a moment then looked forward as he responded in a calm voice, "Well...for one I just bet your girlfriend to the winners of this duel, and secondly we're gonna grab some new AC's parts off these chumps. All in all in interesting turn of events." Sikas stopped dead in his tracks and turned towards Mell, "He just bet you you know, don't you have anything to say?!" Mell marched up to Blanc as he stood there warily and said to him, "Win or I'll castrate you." And with the she walked back over to Sikas, looped her arm through his and they continued walking together towards the hangar, with Sikas shaking his head all the way. "Do you know the number of things that are wrong with this plan?" he asked shrilly, "First off, you bet my girlfriend...second of all YOU BET MY GIRLFRIEND, and thirdly...you don't have a clan." The reached the docking platform and they all stood in front of the hulking form of Noir. Blanc turned to Sikas with a grin on his face, "Of course I have a clan," he said happily. Sikas paused, was about to speak, then shut his mouth promptly and just sighed. "You asshole." Blanc gave him a pat on the shoulder, Sikas turned to Mell and said, "Sorry babe...we didn't even get to have breakfast..." She fake pouted for a moment then brightened, "Welllll we can have lunch if Blanc doesn't mind..." Blanc already sensing where this was going headed over to the engineers room and struck up a conversation with mechanics there, as Sikas stared after him puzzled, he turned back to Mell and she kissed him. 10 minutes later a happier looking Sikas and Mell walked out from behind Noirs frame and headed over to Blanc who was just finishing up a conversation with one of his mechanic buddies. "So," he asked innocently, "how was lunch guys?" Their beaming smiles, and ruffled clothing told him all he needed to know about 'lunch'. "Well we gotta start directing these guys on what to do so when we get back we can ALL have some 'dinner' too," Blanc said then winked at Mell. Sikas punched him in the shoulder and Mell blushed and gave them both that chastising/loving look she was so famous for, then kissed Sikas and hugged Blanc and rushed off with a loud, "Remember the castration!!!". The mechanics gave Blanc and Sikas weird looks at her parting words. They both shrugged in unison and walked over to Dragonuv. A mechanic was already working on it from the specfications that Blanc gave while Mell and Sikas were off enjoying themselves. Sikas looked up at Dragonuv, then looked back at Blanc, "So...honestly dude...how did this all get started?" Blanc stared at Dragonuv as he gave his response, "They called Mell a bitch." Sikas was silent for a moment, then yelled up at the mechanic, "Load up the implosive rounds into the rifles would you!" Blanc turned and grinned at him, "Implosive eh? Good times." Sikas gave a weak smile then said, "Next time someone does that just knock them the fuck out, so we can avoid things like...um...I dunno...BETTING MY GIRLFRIEND" "You're never gonna let me live this one down are you?" he sighed. Sikas smiled openly, "Not for as long as you live!" Blanc stared off into space, "Well I might not have to hear it for very long..." Sikas was silent and watched as they loaded Noir with new armaments. He turned to Blanc quickly to see Blanc smiling at him, "So you finally noticed did you?" Blanc said laughingly. Sikas ran around to the back of Dragonuv, and stared up at the new boosters protruding from Dragonuvs' back. He walked slowly back to Blanc. "You must be expecting a hell of a fight from these guys bud...I thought we agreed not to bring them back...Custom Noir and Custom Dragonuv, burnt too much energy to be efficient...you said so yourself!" Sikas said loudly. Blanc turned to Sikas and said seriously, " I have addressed the issues of energy management...its time to show people who we truly are, by unleashing that which we have pent up deep inside of us...and what better way than to eliminate a worthless clan, and gain a few new parts..." Sikas grabbed the front of Blancs shirt and shoved him against the smooth hull of Dragonuv. "We said we'd never kill again...do you know how hard it will be to control that fighting instinct once we're inside." Sikas let go and leaned tiredly against the handrail, "Dragonuv is a part of me, as Noir is a part of you, you remember what our instructor said the first day of our class?" Blanc nodded and as Sikas recited it out loud he followed along with it in his head.

"Ravens...your AC...your own personal AC's are a direct extension of you. Just like you it can be used for noble causes...or for self gain. There is no good and evil to an AC, it is just the physical manifestion of your will...your desires and what you will ultimately become. If you look at any AC design out there, you can 99 of the time draw a conclusion to the persona of the pilot. However, in Raven lore...it says to beware the AC who has a will of its own...an AC built upon the foundations of misery and turmoil will possess an iron will so powerful that the pilot and its own existances will be switched in the heat of battle. Making them the ultimate foe." At this their teacher laughed nervously, "however thats all hearsay...onto our next lesson..."

Blanc remembered that quote well, he remembered that after those words the whole class had been uneasy...all except him and Sikas. Sikas looked at him, "You know it...and I know it." Blanc sighed, "I'm doing it. I have to, Noir wants to as bad as I do. We've been idle for too long, nothing is a challenge anymore. Now thats something we BOTH know." he shot at Sikas. Sikas' resolve was weakening, Blanc pressed onwards, "Besides...I'm sure we can suspend the no killing rule for a bunch of predators...I mean come on...what AC pilot always recruits his whole clan for single missions," he scoffed. "On one condition," Sikas said seriously. "Whats that?" Blanc asked, equally serious.

"We don't kill unless we have to."

"Deal."

With one hour left to go, Blanc and Sikas helped the mechanics to make the final preparations to both Noir and Dragonuv. The mechanics were beside themselves with glee, most of them had never handled this many custom, high-end parts in their life. Some of the older mechanics that started out the same time that Blanc and Sikas remembered the customized versions of their respective AC's and were awed at seeing them revived. "I have to say you guys, it almost brings tears to my eyes, to get these parts of yours out of storage," said Bruno, one of the chief mechanics at the Ark. Blanc looked at Bruno and smiled, "No bud its you we have to thank for booking this section of the hangar off limits, so no prying eyes get in the way of our surprise." Bruno shook his head as he looked at the refitting of Noir and Dragonuv, "These things are monsters...I'm glad its you two piloting these things..." and with that he went back to work. Blanc looked over at Sikas the smile fading from his face. Sikas gave a little nod, and they both returned to their respective tasks.45min later the dual completed AC's stood gleaming dully under the bright lights of the hangar. The team of mechanics that had helped them stood below with Blanc and Sikas and stared upwards at the two mighty Ac's. Bruno wiped a tear away with his greasy hands, leaving a trail of dirt across his cheeks, "So what are you guys gonna na..." Blanc interrupted him, "You'll see Bruno...you'll see." He turned and him and Sikas shook each and every one of the mechnics hands, before heading into the change room to suit up. Bruno looked towards the younger mechanics and said in a proud voice, "You guys have just shaken the hands of soon to be legends in the Ark...remember this moment.." then turned around to face the change room door which had creaked open. A collective hush raced through the mechanics as Blanc and Dragonuv exited in their old suits. Sikas' was green and black with a splash of gold emblazed upon his back in the form of a dragon. While Blancs was pure black except for the patch of white over the left part of his chest which read "Yang". They stepped through the mechanics silently and climbed up the platforms into their AC's. As Blanc stepped into his AC he looked down once more at the mechanics, tipped them a wink and said, "If it wasn't for you guys we wouldn't have been ready in time, we both thank you for this and are in your debt. Call in the favor anytime." And with that he slipped into the cockpit. As it closed down and locked into place, he opened the private comlink with Sikas. "You ready for this?" he asked. "I was born ready bro, lets do this. Its' been awhile since we've had anything close to a challenge." Sikas drawled. Blanc gave him a thumbs up then cut the visual link, he took a deep breath to try and calm himself as he did every mission. He closed his eyes and pictured their victory, then opened them and looked at the dashboard of the cockpit. Imprinted there by his own hand read the word "Yin" in black. "Lets do this baby," he muttered to himself and began to perform a full systems check while his computer went through the basic motor tests. He lowered the helmet over his head, and was peering through his AC's optics immediately, he squinted his eyes and the optics magnified his vision exponentially, he stopped squinting and vision returned to normal. He then inserted both of his arms through the harnesses in the cockpit and felt them latch onto his arm and contract and enlargen to fit its size comfortably. He placed his fingers into the glove at the end and flexed them, as he watched the AC's fingers flex. Next he placed his feet into the straps below and felt as those as well gently strapped his feet in securely. He manually released the platform locks and with the AC's strode over towards the lift which would take them to the arena. He looked to his left and saw Sikas waiting and ready to be lifted as well, over the comlink he said, "Ready for some new AC parts bud?" Sikas replied, "Definitely...that or lose my girlfriend for a night as shes defiled over and over by those men we...I mean YOU bet her to."

"You're never gonna let that go are you?"

"Nope."

There was an air of excitement in the arena stands as everyone in the Ark had come to watch the battle between the 12 Fangs and Blanc. Everyone who had witnessed the spectacle in the morning had immediately gone and told whoever wasn't there, so by word of mouth eventually everyone at the Ark heard about it and came down to the arena. Evangel and a couple others who knew Blanc were sitting together and discussing his chances with each other. "Hes gonna get squashed..finally!" said Ammo jokingly. Sarah Roberts, a girl that had been in Blancs class, punched Ammo in the arm and said loudly, "Well I think he's going to destroy the 12 Fangs!...But I didn't know he belonged to a clan?" Evangel snickered loudly. She looked at him in mock anger. "What!" she cried. Evangel looked at all of them, "Oh he does have a clan...you'll see exactly who in about 10 seconds.." he said as the lights dimmed. Through the dimming lights Evangel thought he saw a familiar face enshrouded by black hair with white stripes... The overhead speakers came on and the arena announcer came on, "Welcome everyone! Its been a long time since there has been a clan battle within this arena!!" At this people clapped and cheered loudly. " The match today will take place within the Forests Edge setting! Now I shall introduce the first team...The 12 Fangs!!" Several hundred people cheered at this as the members of the 12 Fangs entered the arena, 2 flew in with their boosters, as the rest were either dropped in by aerial transport or raised to the arena floor by platform. They had 6 widow AC's armed with dual back mounted chainguns and special exceed orbit arm parts. Their quadruped legs skittered insect-like through the arena kicking up dust, which coated their black surfaces. The next models in their arsenal were the 5 heavy _Wulf_ AC's, which were mounted on tank-like tread and sported back mounted howitzers, along with a long range radar. Their arms consisted of dual short range bazookas, and they looked menacing in dark blue in the light of the arena. Finally, Lee himself showed up to the applause of hundreds and he boosted in, the only bipedal AC of them all and clearly looking the part of the leader. His light blue mid-weight AC _Dire Wulf_ looked impressive, sporting an exceed orbit weapon on its back, along with radar. In its right hand it carried a high powered rifle and in its left a sinister looking lightweight bazooka. His AC seemed merely a compilation of all of the other AC's in his clan. The arena announcer came back on the overhead once everyone had quieted down, "Next we have Noir and Dragonuv!" he said to the roar of thousands. Sarah was beside herself with glee, "He got Sikas too!!!! They so have this!!!" Evangel smiled lightly and focused on the arena. The platforms weren't moving, eventually the roar of the crowd faded and a confused hum began to break out as people questioned each other as to the whereabouts of Blanc and Sikas. In his usual cocky manner, Lee comlinked straight to the overhead and began a tirade against Sikas and Blanc, "They were so scared apparently they didn't even have the balls to sh..." He was cut off as the overhead annoucer returned sounding slightly awed. "Ladies and gentlemen...excuse the wait. I had called the wrong AC's." The crowd began to mutter once more as the announcer continued to speak, "It is my honor...and distinct pleasure to introduce...and welcome back...The True Noir, and E.X. Dragonuv." Many in the audience were confused by the change of name, however some of the older Ravens gasped aloud, and began to clap frantically. The older ones that still weren't in shock of what they had just heard, leaned over to share their information with some of the newcomers. Sarah Roberts, was one of those few olders ones who had no idea what was going on. "Whats going on?," she asked plaintively to Evangel who just sat there with his jaw open. "They...they brought them back..." he stuttered. The platforms began to move and the arena was dead silent as True Noir and E.X. Dragonuv ascended to the battlefield. There was a collective sigh as for the first time many gazed upon the pair of God-like AC's.

E.X. Dragonuv, still sported its green and black, but now it was completely reconfigured for excellence. Sikas had traded in his dual sniper rifles for another pair of rifles...his E.X. set he called them. The right-handed rifle was extremely powerful and fast, with medium-long range capabilites it glinted cruelly in the light of the arena. His left handed rifle, was the sister rifle to his right handed one, with one noticable different, it sported a laser sight which improved Sikas' already exceptional aim even moreso. The barrel of both reached almost to the ground. His back mounted weapon was a heavily modified version of the laser cannon he used during sorties, the LQ/15 laser cannon. On his left back slot a long range radar was installed, making E.X. Dragonuv one of the deadliest long range AC's in existance. Dragonuvs left arm raised and locked onto Dire Wulf, the laser sight pointed straight at the cockpit. The rest of the 12 Fangs activated their weapons, and focused on Dragonuv until the announcer came on and told them all to lower their armaments. They all lowered them except for Dragonuv, who still had his pointed at Dire Wulf, until Noir came over and placed a hand on the barrel of the gun and gently lowered it. Noir then turned towards the 12 fangs and stood before them, in all of its glory. The True Noir. The completely perfect form of Noir with all of its customizations, it was a light-weight model which sported some heavy gear, made possible only by the intense modifications they and the mechanical team had made to each AC. Its back mounted weapon was simply two silos filled to the brim with highly explosive missiles, it had a medium range radar installed directly into its head. The feature that many were wondering about was the extension part that both E.X. Dragonuv and True Noir were sporting, classified simply as MX/CROW, no one knew what it did as it was an impossibly expensive part. However in Noirs right hand a powerful double barreled shotgun shone brightly in the light and in its left, what caught the eyes of most AC pilots in the arena, a moonlight laser blade. The latter he extended at the moment, it hummed as it materialize from True Noirs arm, and glowed a shimmering blue, as he slowly brought it up in the air and pointed it at Dire Wulf, then retracted it and stepped back. At this the crowd went wild with excitement, "OH MY GOD THIS IS GOING TO BE AWESOME," Sarah shrieked, forcing Ammo and Evangel, along with others to cover their ears, or risk shattered eardrums, However, Sarah wasn't the only one excited at the prospect of this match, older Ravens who knew what True Noir and E.X. Dragonuv were capable of we're in a state of ecstacy as well. The announcer came on suddenly and said, "Well enough with the introductions, shall we view the area they'll be fighting in?" And the air in the arena vibrated as the holofaust projected realtime images into the once barren arena. Where there was once only a handful of AC's in a dustcovered arena, there was now leafy foliage everywhere and trees and vines obstructed the AC's view of each other. On the overhead the announcer said, "Welcome to the Forests Edge arena all! Not a popular choice for competitors, but the crowd always loves a Forests Edge battle!" The crowd roared at this statement, "You'll all be able to see the combatants just fine, but they won't have it so easily, they'll have to battle through the lush foliage of this arena in order to win." "Now Ravens, at the sound of the siren, the battle will begin, the team with no remaining AC's will be declared the losers. Goodluck" the overhead clicked off and there was silence.

The siren sounded seconds later and below in the arena the action had begun.

As the siren sounded simultaneously 6 pairs of chainguns began to revolve, seconds later bullets began to tear through the trees and foliage like nothing at all. Dragonuv and Noir lay flat below the barrage of bullets, Sikas opened a comlink to Blanc, "Plan?" he asked somewhat anxiously. "Well," Blanc said slowly, "Surviving seems like a good plan at the moment." Sikas just sighed loudly and said, "My girlfriend is so gonna castrate you." Blanc looked alarmed for a moment, "Oh shit I forgot about that, well thats motivation enough for me. Can you take out a couple of their radars in a moment? Cause I'm sure they see us not being touched so they'll figure we're on the gro-" A loud explosion to the right of T. Noir cut Blanc off in mid-sentence. "Move!" he yelled at Sikas as both Dragonuv and T.Noir, boosted along the ground in opposite directions, Dragonuv to the left and Noir to the right. It was at that moment, under intense pressure to perform that they both became different people.

_...it says to beware the AC who has a will of its own...an AC built upon the foundations of misery and turmoil will possess an iron will so powerful that the pilot and its own existances will be switched in the heat of battle. Making them the ultimate foe..._

This was true, as of now. Dragonuv skidded to a perfect stop with its right handed sniper rifle locked on target, mentally Sikas calibrated the coordinates of the 6 widows with the long range search radar models and targetted each radar. He shot six times, and destroyed six radars. The crowd was beside itself in awe, there were yells and cries of shock and disbelief. Meanwhile the 6 widows were now without radar, so they had to rely on their comrades instructions as to where the enemy AC's were. Dragonuv continued its onslaught of perfectly aimed shots, shots that pierced the legs joints, arm joins and battered the armor of the widows into submission. In this first assault by Dragonuv 3 widows were immediately non operational, due to their legs being either shot off or joints disabled entirely. As Dragonuv continued its relentless assault, Noir was hunting the Wulf AC's. Inside Blanc heard the heavy treads grinding over the forest floor and waited for them to lock onto him, as the treads stopped and he heard the heavy, _THUMP,_ of incoming howitzer shells, he over boosted straight towards the tank-like AC's as heavy shells flew all around him and brought the shotgun forward. Noir landed in front of one Wulf and at point blank range he fire the shotgun through the torso of AC. It tilted and leaned to the side, still held aloft by the tread like legs, however the top half was a heap of torn, molten metal with holes everywhere. The second Wulf nearby saw True Noir in front of the half destroyed Wulf and fired its dual bazookas, Noir boosted backwards easily and the resulting explosion erased the crippled Wulf from the battlefield. Up in the stands there were cries of dismay as the first casualty of battle was made apparent. Noir faced 3 Wulf AC's now as they had been drawn to the location, due to the explosion and the cries of their teammate, as they surveyed the mangled wreckage of the Wulf before them, they automatically assumed that Nor was the one responsible for the carnage. And with that thought blazing in their minds, they opened fire upon The True Noir, to their delight he didn't move at all as the bazooka rounds along with the howitzers headed straight for Noir. Suddenly the CROW extensions on Noir glowed a deep purple, and there was a burst of foliage and dirt around it. The crowd leaned forward in their seats with their breaths held. The the Wulf AC's looked into the cloud of dirt now settling. "Hehe well thats one down," said one of them over the comlink to his comrades. "Heh yeah...I don't see what all the fuss was about these guys...we just totally ruined him," said the second. The third pilot said nothing, but raised his bazooka upwards moments before a long shimmering blue blade cut through the settling dirt and sliced it cleanly in half. "What the hell!?" the first pilot yelled in surprise. The blade was retracted, and they began to unload their weapons into the dust cloud that still made the air hazy. "What the fuck is going on!" the second pilot said nervously, "hes not on my radar...HES NOT THERE! Where did he argrrrhhh...!!" He was cut off in mid sentence as the same blue blade seemingly sprouted from the core of his AC it immediately shut down. Noir walked casually towards the last Wulf AC in the area, as the crowd looked on in awe. "No...NO GET AWAY FROM ME!" the Ac pilot screamed, as he fired both bazookas at the same time causing a horrendous recoil that shook the behemoth, the two shells flew towards True Noir, who boosted straight towards them, then planted its feets firmly in the ground and shot straight up. The shells flew harmlessly beneath Blanc as he hovered in the air and then dived straight straight downwards towards the Wulf. No one saw what happened, but one moment Blanc was divebombing the Wulf in Noir, and the next he was standing beside the enemy AC, blade retracted. He then overboosted away, as the top half of the tank slowly slide sideways and fell off after a horrendous shriek of metal. The crowd went wild at this and began to chant the names of Sikas and Blanc over and over. Meanwhile Lee still hadn't been spotted, 'Just like him to use his lackeys first instead of going for us himself,' Blanc thought disconnectedly, as he overboosted through the forest in an attempt to locate the two remaining Wulf AC's and Dire Wulf. His computer screen uttered a warning shriek as he found himself locked onto by the two remaining Wulf's. He smiled grimly and went to work.

Meanwhile Dragonuv, was battling the three remaining Widows and doing well, he had been taking quick accurate shots at their vital points till they sought refuge behind trees. He overboosted till he had encircled their position, then noted Noir nearby. Sikas opened a comlink to Blanc and said simply, "Their herding us in." Blanc nodded at this and asked, "Which Operation." Sikas thought for a moment and calculated the odds, then responded, "No Operation...Formation Blitz." Blanc nodded, it was now time to get serious.

Lee knew his plan would work as soon as he saw the direction his men had been herding the two idiots. 'Pfft...is this the best they have?' he thought to himself. He had been staying far out of range of radar for the whole battle, directing his clanmates actions and movements. It was now time for him to end this little game they had been playing, play time was over. Dire Wulf stood up, and made its way into the fray.

"Dire Wulf located." the cool female voice of Blancs computer notified. And indeed he had, Dire was standing in the clearing of the forest as Noir boosted towards him and Dragonuv followed.

'Gotcha' Lee smirked

The whirring of 3 pairs of chainguns sounded again as Dragonuv and Noir found themselves surrounded by Widows, Wulfs and Dire Wulf. The crowd gasped at this strategic turn of events. "I can't watch..." said Sarah as she buried her head into Evangels chest. He sat there watching anxiously...but not as anxiously as the woman who sat a few seats over with the amethyst eyes, who was rhythmically biting her fingernails. He still couldn't put his finger on who she was, so he ignored her figuring it would come to him eventually.

"This is it," Blanc said to Sikas over comlink. "Yep," responded Sikas. They sat there and braced for the the onslaught.

"END THEM" Lee shouted over his comlink to his clanmates as well as the arena spectaters, as they had surrounded True Noir and E.X Dragonuv he had patched through to the overhead speakers.

'Cocky bastard...' was Blancs last coherent thought, instinct took over from that point onwards.

Every Widow and Wulf opened fire upon the two AC's in the middle of the clearing. Many in the crowd yelled in dismay, or just covered their eyes, several women started crying, Mell was one of these and her friends sought to comfort her. As the dust cleared there was no sign of the two AC's...just a large smoldering crater where they once were. Still on comlink Lee scoffed, "We destroyed them so badly that not even a scrap of metal was left...we the 12 Fangs are the clear win-" Lee stopped talking as he noticed a large red laser sight focused on one of his clanmates widows. "Im...Im...Impossible how! Where!? What the HELL is going on!? " he sputtered out. Evangel whispered more to himself than anyone else, "Above you fool." Sarah heard this and looked up at the forms of True Noir and Dragonuv hovering in the sky. More and more of the crowd began to notice that Noir and Dragonuv were alive and well and slowly a deep rumbling cheer went up throughout the stands as every person got out of their seat and cheered them on.

"Formation commencing." Was all that Blanc said, with a push of a button, Dragonuvs laser sighted gun split its laser sight into 6 separate beams, each targetting a different AC, the crowd screamed in anticipation of what was coming next. Meanwhile all the silos on True Noirs back had opened up and the build up of energy was literally visible as he removed the limiter and targeted all the AC's on the ground. Blanc opened a comlink to Sikas and asked if he'd like the honor. Sikas agreed, and in true Noir/Dragonuv form, comlinked to the arena and said through the overhead, "Bang, your dead." The crowd screamed themselves hoarse as E.X. Dragonuv removed the limiter cap on his sniper rifles and let loose with barrage after barrage of accurate armorshattering bullets hovering back-to-back with Noir as they spun in a circle above the ring of death they created below them. As Dragonuv continued his hail of bullets, the large red OK on Blancs computer screen signalled his part of the Formation. The sound of continuous whistles permeated the arena as over 80 missiles plowed into the ground below them lighting the AC's below on fire and downright destroying some of them. Several Widows tried to retaliate during the bombardment, however throughout the ordeal, True Noir and E.X. Dragonuv kept their CROW extensions active, meaning they couldn't get a clear lock on either of them. "So thats what those parts do!" Evangel said in an impressed voice. As the barrage subsided, Blanc looked down and saw Dire overboosting through the ruins of his clanmates AC's, and immediately proceeded to intercept. Noir flew above Dire and released the now empty missile silo ontop of him, he managed to dodge it but just barely and stopped a few yards after, brandishing his weapons. Dragonuv touched down upon the ground, and flew straight towards Dire Wulf. Lee fired round after round into Dragonuv but Sikas didn't mind, he began to beat Dire Wulf with the butt of his sniper rifles, causing the crowd to roar in amusement. Once Dire Wulf was suitably beaten down True Noir and E.X. Dragonuv walked towards the platforms which would take them back down to the hangar. Blanc suddenly got a chill and turned around just in time to see Dire Wulf raising its remaining hand with the howitzer pointed at Dragonuvs back. Once more Blanc removed the limiter of his overboost, and the next few moments seemed to happen in slow motion. As he overboosted towards Dire Wulf the G-Force of the boost pressed him back into the cockpit. As he sped forward he felt his right arm snap like a twig and his left leg twist in pain, he brought the moonlight blade to bear as he felt something inside tear and extended it as the howitzer fired inches from the cockpit.

'Well,' he thought, 'As far as ways to die go, this isn't too bad.' He closed his eyes and waited for oblivion.

Click

Blanc opened his eyes, 'Well it would seem that this isn't hell..' He saw the arm with the howitzer slide to the ground amid his moonlight blade. 'Missfire..?' he thought, then began to laugh, large guffaws that rocked his body and pained his broken limbs.

On the overhead the announcer declared, " Winners by complete team annhilation...TRUE NOIR AND E.X. DRAGONUV!!!" The crowd who had screamed themselves hoarse before got their second wind and began to scream even louder. Sikas opened a comlink to Blanc, "Dude we fucking did it! Now I'm the only one who gets to do my girl!!...Blanc??" Blanc looked blearily at Sikas, "Yeah man we did it, now if you don't mind I think I'll go die now..." Sikas opened his eyes wide in horror, he then switched over the comlink to the arena overhead, "Someone get an emergency vehicle down here NOW, Blanc is dying I repeated BLANC IS DYING." At this people in the arena froze and started talking among themselves, those who knew him were in shock and rushed down the stairs to get into the arena. The woman sitting alone with the amethyst eyes seemed to be crying soundlessly, and then it clicked for Evangel, he was about to go over to her when over the loudspeaker came a familiar voice. "Tch, you guys in the arena and Sikas are oh-so-gulliable." Blancs tired but warm voice came out over the arena speakers. "Oh you son of a bitch I'm going to kill you for that!" Sikas yelled still on the overhead. The crowd chuckled in relief, and the woman with the amethyst eyes gave an inaudible sigh and left the arena.


	4. Chapter 4: Awakening

**Solace – Chapter 4**

'God, the pain of this is insane!' Blanc thought to himself as he lay in his AC, he managed to lift his left arm up to loosen the straps connecting his arms to Noir, and was visibly relieved when nothing fell out of place upon doing so. 'Ah,' he thought, ' much better.' As he slipped in and out of consciousness he thought he heard his system running a diagnostic check on the pilot-AC neuro-lick…but that couldn't be correct, that had to be manually done. He chalked it up to fatigue and stress; the last thing he saw before he drifted off into unconsciousness was Noirs optics automatically zooming in upon on particular person within in crowd…'It couldn't be…', he thought incoherently, then passed out.

'Flora! What are you doing?' Instructor Parker barked at her. She jumped in fright, then looked around and gave the instructor an apologetic bow. After Parker had given her a chastising look and turned away, she looked back over at Blanc, scrunched up her face and stuck her tongue out at him. They had been signing to each other (subtlety of course) through the entire lecture much to the general amusement of the class and the bane of Instructor Parkers teachings. Parker quickly turned around to catch them both at it again and said in an exasperated tone, 'Alright you two lovebirds get into the damned holo-simulation and prepare for a test run…see how you two do out there eh?' Ammo raised his hand angrily, 'Sir, that's totally unfair…how are they supposed to communicate?? Flora is well…you know…' and he trailed off in an embarrassed silence. Blanc looked over at Ammo and replied, 'Thanks bud but its okay,' he said while looking over at Flora, 'We'll be fine.' She grinned back happily and they both made their way to the front of the class with their hands held, then separated as they entered their individual, mock cockpits. Blanc put on his helmet and was immediately surrounded by a holographic image of a ruined battlefield, he checked the landscape and noticed Flora standing there as well trying to get her bearings. He flexed his fingers, then tested his walking capabilities, noticed he had none and then groaned inwardly, Instructor Parker had a tendency to remove people from their favored element and put them into situations they hated, in this instance he had placed Blanc into a heavy tank AC. Blanc hated slow AC's. He looked over at Flora and noted she was also in a heavier type AC than she would normally pilot. 'Well this blows,' he noted over com-link, he saw her AC nod its head in agreement and dimly he heard the laughter of the class outside of the holo-sim. The instructors voice suddenly permeated the eerie silence of the wasteland, 'Your mission objective here is to destroy the enemy outpost, there are 4 MT's, 3 AC's and 1 surprise hehe, do your best.' The click was audible as he ended the transmission. Blanc took a quick inventory of his AC's weapons and abilities…he had a close range shotgun on the right arm and a long range bazooka on the left, his back mounted weapons consisted of a long range search radar and a mediocre laser rifle. His also had a sniper core with long-range Exceed Orbit weapons. 'Jesus,' he thought, ' who designed this thing…a 4th grader? Theres absolutely no synergy…' He then looked over to see what Floras AC was capable of and was not surprised to see the same lack of coherency pertaining to her weapons as his AC. A medium strength right hand rifle a weak left handed flamethrower, back weapons consisted of a small missile launcher and mid range model radar. 'This should be interesting,' he thought wistfully. They both began to make their way to the enemy hold. Almost immediately 4 blips sounded on his radar, 'Damn, that was quick,' he said out loud, then proceeded to go to work. "I'll take point!," he said loudly to Flora, who he was sure understood immediately. Blanc slowly rolled forward to engage the MT's when another 3 blips sounded on the radar. His eyes widened for a moment, before becoming slack and emotionless. 'Commencing extermination.' He whispered. The tanks treads ground to a stop as the first of the enemies, the MT's, boosted over the hill…straight into 3 well placed bazooka rounds, the first MT simply exploded as the shell crushed its chest and leveled the area around it, the second shell caught the next MT in the head erasing everything below that point, and the 3rd was blown in half. The 4th MT however, was still headed straight towards Blanc with its dual drill arms spinning in a frenzy. It latched onto Blanc's AC and began to drill its way into the pilots cockpit, Blanc threw down the shotgun and grabbed the MT, removing it from the front of his core and held it up high as it struggled to free itself and continue drilling. He activated the laser rifle, extended it so it was just inches away from the MT's core then blew a hole through it, but instead of leaving the useless MT on the ground, he repositioned it so the cockpit of the MT was directly facing the barrel of the laser. He fired once more utterly destroying the MT in his AC's arms. He looked over at Flora who stood there guns at her side, just staring at him, as he looked back covered in MT debris and ash, the final 3 obstacles crested the hill and began firing upon them, Flora quickly over boosted out of the way Blanc didn't move, he merely rotated his treads so he was facing the onslaught head-on. The 3 AC's were well designed and looked to be relatively agile, each was equipped with a standard issue rifle, and shield for left arm, however it was their choice of back mounted weapons that set them apart. One had a set of dual vertical missile launchers, while the other two sported a set of machine guns and laser guns respectively. Flora began to make her way towards the one with the vertical missiles, Blanc left that one to her and concentrated on the other two. They both let loose with every weapon available, and many hit Blancs AC dead-on…it wasn't until they got within 200 yards of his AC that he began to react, he rolled to the left and activated the sniper EO (Exceed Orbit) part, which blasted a high powered slug through the center of the laser AC. It went limp and skidded across the ground to come to a rest before Blanc. Slowly, he rolled the tanks heavy treads over the cockpit portion and legs of the AC effectively 'killing' the pilot. He rolled completely over it and headed straight at the other AC that in the meantime had been blasting away at him from mid range. He lowered and extended his laser rifle and began to fire rapidly at the one target, who blocked his initial shots with the shield but was soon overcome due to the negative reaction between energy shields and laser weapons. The minor explosion that was triggered after the laser round hit the shield removed both of the AC's arms and a good portion of its core. It shut down and Blanc turned his attention to Flora battling the other AC. She had it on the ropes when suddenly its back parts activated and a hail of rockets began to shower down upon her, she dodged several with ease, but as they kept coming she found herself with less and less space to execute dodges as the round was being turned into rubble making it hard to maneuver. After one particularly close explosion her AC was thrown to the ground, and as she looked up 4 missiles were upon her. She closed her eyes in shame as her defeat was about to be made evident, when suddenly the missiles above her exploded. She looked to her left at Blancs AC with its laser gun still cooling down after the blast it had just issued, and by the look of it, it seemed like that little life-saving maneuver had consumed the last bit of ammo it had left. Blanc shot through the 4 missiles with one shot, effectively neutralizing the blow meant to finish off Flora, who by this point had gotten up and was once more on the offensive even moreso than before. Blanc however was in no mood to waste time, so without hesistation he fired 3 seemingly random bazooka shots then dropped his weapons and rolled away towards the base where only the 'surprise' lay. The AC' Flora was fighting quickly boosted backwards to avoid her gunfire…and right into the first of Blancs shots, it then was hit 2 more times and exploded, leaving behind a small crater. Flora looked at the retreating form of Blanc and followed.

"O-o-ok guys…that's enough for now, remove your helmets…class is over." Parker stuttered. Blanc removed his helmet to face a seemingly somber and stunned class. Life flickered back into his eyes and he asked jokingly, "You guys miss me?" There were a few scattered laughs at this, but the nervousness in them was so apparent it only made the situation worse. Blanc looked around at his peers…his classmates and then just walked out of the room. 'The worst part of it all was that Flora looked at me just like all the rest', he thought sadly as he walked down the halls of the Learning Centre within The Academy. He heard running footsteps behind him and turned just in time to catch Flora in his arms. He hugged her tightly and said, " I'm…I'm sorry…I get like that sometimes when I pilot…' She pulled away and looked at him questioningly, then signed, 'Why?' He sighed, 'Its about my past…theres someone I have to…I have to kill.' And with that he brought his hand to his head in that familiar gesture, but before he could complete it, she reached out and held his hand in between hers. Then signed at him once more, 'Let go of it.' He pulled his hand away angrily, 'I can't! It's all I have.' She looked extremely hurt at this but he didn't notice, his mind was wrapped in the thoughts that had plagued him for his entire life. 'You have me.' Flora signed once more. He paced the hallway when the Academy was rocked by an explosion, they both fell on the floor, and Blanc immediately got up and rushed over to help her to her feet, then they both ran to the common room to see what was going on. When they got there it was packed with people. All of the instructors were there and giving out the bits of information they were allowed to. "Well, it appears that 2 AC's are currently engaged in combat outside of this facility, but not to worry, the force fields are up and in place now so we shouldn't have to worry about a thing. It doesn't appear that we're the target…probably just a stray round, although I'm sure those two will be severely reprimanded by their respective companies," Instructor Mendez said. Everyone looked extremely relieved at this information, everyone except Blanc whose face had become rigid and gone pale. Flora looked up at him and was shocked to see the radical change in demeanor. On the screen it showed the 2 AC's battling outside of the Academy, one was a mid range model, bipedal with 2 handguns and some possibly prototype extensions no one had ever seen before, it had a mid ranged model radar and a back mounted howitzer attached. It was a sandy color and blended in with its surroundings quite well. The second AC was pure black, with 2 wicked looking mid-long range rifles, a radar, some also unknown extensions and…well what looked like skeletal wings on its back. At this AC Blanc was staring so intently, he whispered under his breath, "It's you…" Then rushed out of the room followed closely by a concerned Flora. As he ran as fast as he could to the hangar, another explosion rocked the Academy, outside it looked like the force field was being given a run for its money from those 2 AC's. Blanc made it into the hangar and began to look around for his AC, he hadn't named it yet, seeing as how he couldn't decide what he wanted it to be. As the place was shaken by yet another explosion, the mechanics around decided it was best to be in another, better protected area of the Academy. Blanc had finally found his AC and stood in front of it staring up at it with determination in his eyes, when he heard something that almost shattered his will to fight.

'_Blan..Blan..'_

He whipped around to look at a crying Flora, who was trying her best to call out his name amidst the terrified crowd of people making their way out of the hangar. She tried to call again but nothing came, as the tears continued to roll, she signed to him, 'Please don't leave me.' He hesitantly walked towards her as she spread her arms open, and within all the chaos ensuing around them they shared a moment of peace. He pulled away from her for a moment, looked deep into her amethyst eyes and whispered to her, "I love you Flora,' then hugged her tightly for a moment, savoring the feel of her small body against his, the smell of her hair and then he disconnected himself from it all. He beckoned over an older mechanic and said to him, 'Take her away, get her somewhere safe.' Her eyes widened in betrayal and she clung desperately to him and he strode off deeper into the hangar, her eyes a burning mixture of anguish and love as the mechanic took her away. Blanc got up into the AC and…

_SMACK!_

"Jesus what the hell!!" Blanc said groggily as he looked blearily around, "Where am I?" Sikas' semi-worried face was scrunched up about 5 inches away from his face. "You're in the Ark hospital buddy, after you tried to pull that heroic crap you busted up a lotta stuff, the gesture is much appreciated though," he said and grinned. Blanc smiled back somewhat tiredly, "I'm getting too old for this…'

_Ahem_ Someone coughed discreetly, Blanc focused on the rest of the people in his hospital room. There were several people there, "Wow I didn't think I had this many friends," he kidded, everyone laughed. Ammo and Evangel were there and of course bickering away on some subject or another, Sarah was there on Evangels arm, (knew they would go out, Blanc smirked), Sikas and Mell of course all of the mechanics that had helped get their AC's ready and someone he hadn't seen in awhile, a long-time friend of both Blanc and Sikas, Nova. Blancs eyes lit up, "Hey! You ain't dead yet?' They all had a little chuckle at this.

_Raine AKA Nova_

_AC: Lilith_

_A strong, capable pilot in many regards this Raven is much sought after for group sorties simply because she excels at team combat. Always willing to help out a teammate in any regard, and make sacrifices to benefit the team in general. Usually an easygoing person unless provoked, then its almost a different pilot, deadly serious and extremely skilled. Using her lightweight blue/silver AC equipped with dual handguns (pistols), and a ridiculously powerful sniper rifle she uses to finish off incapacitated foes. She specializes in hit and run maneuvers, although from time to time she has been known to plow through direct fire simply to throw opponents off point._

"Well with one of my friends hospitalized for silly heroics how could I resist this opportunity to drop by and mock him?" she said jokingly as she leaned down to give him a peck on the cheek. "So how you feelin' hero?" Blanc sighed, "Better actually but I wish I was doing crappier so I could get another pity kiss," he said slyly. She looked at him sharply and punched him in the leg. "Owowow, I'm an invalid you can't beat on me," he said in a weak voice. "Yeah yeah, you wuss," she said playfully, " you well enough to come see my match today? Last one before the sortie I signed us up for." From across the room Blanc could hear Sikas groan. "What is it this time," he muttered, she shot him a look as if to say shut up, then continued on in her most sweet voice, "Wellll…its nothing too big…just an attack on a small outpost, its easy money really!" Sikas looked skeptical, while Blanc looked ecstatic, "Finally a good honest mission…I'm psyched!" And with that proclamation he hopped out of bed. Everyone in the room turned to gape at him. He looked around at their stunned faces, gave a shrug and said, "Guess I'm a fast healer." Then strode out of the room still garbed in his hospital threads. Nova turned to Sikas and asked, "Does he realize he's still in…"

"Nope."

Once Blanc had come to his senses (unfortunately in the busiest hallway of the Ark) he rushed back to the hospital room and changed into his normal clothing after ushering out his visitors who all shared a collective laugh over his fashion statement. 'Running out of the room almost butt-naked,' he thought to himself embarrassedly, 'I must be losing my damn mind…' As he got dressed he noticed a small piece of paper flutter to the ground from one of his pockets, he bent down to retrieve it and gently placed it back into his pocket, 'My lucky charm,' he thought sadly, then shook his head clear of the memories that flooded back, tossed his shirt on and headed out into the hallway. Only Sikas and Nova awaited him in the hallway, everyone else had apparently gone back to work. "So Nova, whats this job you have set up for us…?" he asked carefully. She pulled out the PDA attached to her hip and handed it over to Blanc after tapping a few buttons on it. Blanc took one look at it, scrunched his face up in disbelief, then sat down heavily on the bench in the hallway. He said weakly, "This is your 'easy' money mission…? Fuck sakes…" Sikas looked over in apprehension, then rushed over and looked at the screen. He stood stock still for a moment, then swooned alarmingly before sitting down heavily beside Blanc. "You're out of your mind Rai-I mean Nova…" he said in a near whisper.

The mission was a direct assault on Mirage headquarters, a joint effort by Navis and Kisaragi to bring down the most powerful corporation. It was to be executed in a month with over 80 AC's taking part in the sortie. Totally classified so that no Mirage Ravens would get wind of it and report to their superiors, it looked to be the largest operation ever performed in the history of Ravens Ark. It would take place in the dead of night, with hopefully only Mirages skeleton crew defenses, it called for perfect symmetry between all taking place in the mission, the finale to this immense battle would be the dropping of two incendiary tactical missiles (ITM's) upon the facility.

The Operation was codenamed: Nightfire.

Blanc stopped reading and looked at both Nova and Sikas, "Out of those 80 AC's participating…you realize at least 50 of those Ravens aren't coming back." They stared back at him and nodded slowly. He spoke again this time his voice thick with emotion, "If you guys don't return I don't think I'll be able to forgive you." Nova and Sikas hide there smiles from him till the moment passed, then Nova surprised them both, "Ok guys enough of this crap, time to head to the arena! We gotta get suited up so we ca-" Sikas cut her off mid sentence, "We? What do you mean we?" Nova looked puzzled for a moment then grinned broadly and said, "Well you guys are my partners for the SW match I have coming up against the Triumvirate!! It's going to be sooo exciting, I haven't seen you guys fight in so long! I also haven't had a chance to show you MY skills, it's gonna be sooo awe-" Sikas just stared at her in disbelief, "Nova?" he asked very calmly. "Hm, Sikas? What is it?" "What the fuck." She kicked him in the shins and shook her finger at him, "That's not how you speak around a lady…language Sikas, language." He looked as if he was on the verge of saying some very colorful things, so Blanc stepped in and calmed everyone down. "Ok, you say we're up against the Triumvirate in a SW match? Well I'm in, it has indeed been awhile…and hey might be fun, they're teamwork is almost flawless, might give us a run for our money," he said with a smile, as Nova scoffed and Sikas rolled his eyes. "Hey I'm just saying…jeez you don't think I know we're unstoppable," Blanc said jokingly. They all smiled, then Nova check her PDA and said, "Well guys its about time to go, have you decided yet?" Blanc looked at Sikas, Sikas sighed and he knew he was in, "Ok I'm in...this time once again someone has to make sure you guys don't get embarrassed out there…bastards." Blanc laughed loudly at this while Nova looked mildly amused, Sikas walked past them grumbling loudly, while they exchanged silent laughter with one another as they made their way to the hangar unit. Blanc stopped suddenly and turned to Sikas, "Hey we didn't tell anyone that we were in the match today, we'll have no support…that we know anyways," he said in mock sadness. Sikas just looked disgusted and kept walking. "No worries guys I took care of that," said Nova happily. Before them Blanc could hear Sikas mutter, "Oh no…" and stifled yet another laugh that threatened to bubble up and spill out. "What do you mean took care of it?" he threw back over his shoulder. She didn't respond but as they entered the hangar she pointed up at one of the monitors. "You didn't…" Blanc said. She gave a mischievous smile then waltzed away to her AC.

Blanc and Sikas watched and listened to the monitor in mounting horror, "THIS MONDAY WATCH THE BIGGEST NAMES IN AC ARENA BATTLING DUEL IT OUT IN EVERYONES FAVORITE MATCH…THE SOLID WEAPONS BOUT!! THIS WEEKS MAIN EVEN WILL FEATURE THE AMAZING, THE TALENTED, THE BEAUTIFUL NOVA, ('Bet you anything she made up that add', Sikas said under his breath, 'Beautiful..pfft…') AND HER AC LILITH. HER PARTNERS INCLUDE THE DARING AND ENIGMATIC BLANC!! ('I'm…enigmatic?' Blanc said aloud to himself, as Sikas roared with laughter) AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST THE 1 SHOT WONDER SIKAS!! (Sikas was silent at this proclaimation, as Blanc was doubled over and laughing till tears flowed, Blanc managed to sputter out the words, '1…shot…wonder…' before collapsing in laughter again, meanwhile Sikas took this opportunity to kick him in the chest)

When the monitor switched to another advertisement, and Blanc had quit laughing, they headed over to Dragonuv. It looked smaller with its E.X. gear off yet still as intimidating as ever in green and black. The sniper rifles that normally adorned the metal behemoth were now removed and replaced with two strange looking compartments that resided on the outer portions of the legs. "So they in there?" Blanc asked. "Yep," was Sikas' simple reply as Dragonuv lowered its zip-line for him to access the cockpit. "See you on the field buddy," he said as he rose up, then disappeared into Dragonuv. Blanc headed over to where the mechanics were taking off the last remnants of Noirs 'True' armor. Bruno looked up, spotted Blanc and motioned for him to come over. He draped his arm over Blancs shoulder, "Well this is a fine week for bringing back legends is it not?" He laughed loudly and clapped Blanc on the back so violently, that he almost lost his balance. "So do you want us to unload it or..?" Blanc looked at him and shook his head, "Nah…I'll reveal it topside buddy." Bruno gave a whoop of excitement, then ordered the other mechanics to retrieve the extremely large parcel from Blancs personal store, and prepare it so it could be taken up without being exposed. They all rushed to work anxious to head up to the arena and see for themselves what the fuss was about. Twenty minutes later, the large package was set securely in Noirs arms and Blanc sat in the cockpit contemplating the fore coming battle. As per usual he closed his eyes for a moments and pictured their imminent victory, then placed his hand on the dashboard of Noir and traced the 'Yin' symbol with his finger before prepping for launch. He stuck his arms through the harness's and placed his legs in the pedals, they tightened more so than usual because of the extreme caliber of SW matches, he lowered the helmet onto his head and peered through Noirs optics, 'Everything looks good', he thought disconnectedly, then shook his head, 'I can't get like this here…too dangerous.' He made last minute adjustments, then strode over to the platform and prepared to be lifted up into the arena.

Nova was the first to rise, to an impressive number of spectators in the arena, included there were all of their acquaintances, the mechanics, who had rushed up directly afterwards to watch the introductions and ensuing battles, good old Ammo and Evangel who were still arguing, Sarah who was sitting exasperatedly beside them with a good-natured smile on her face, and others who had come to support them. In the arena, the group known as the Triumvirate waited patiently for their opponents to show up.

_Original name: Unknown – Pilot: Ram_

_AC: Centaur_

_The leader of the infamous group of solid weapons pilots, the Triumvirate, he excels in close combat tactics and commands his team with great precision. He, along with his team, fight exclusively in the arena and only with solid weapons, even in matches where anything is legal so long as it doesn't threaten spectators lives. This has earned them the reputation of being gutsy and tenacious once engaged. With his large warhammer swirling he can easily send an AC skidding across the arena floor using a fraction of his heavy units power. Striding into battle on quad legs, he is indeed a fearsome foe to engage in melee combat._

_Trina. Aka Angel_

_AC: Foxeye_

_Arguably the fastest and most agile AC on the team, and another melee combatant to boot, Angel is a patient and skilled AC pilot who uses her light AC, Foxeye, to make difficult hit and run maneuvers that make great use of the 4 pronged claws she has welded to her AC's forearms. Using these 'claws' she darts in and out severing vital cables, slashing optical cords, and generally crippling the targeted AC so her teammates can deliver the final blow. However, she is quite the adept fighter by herself, and when backed into a corner can unleash a flurry of attacks that will rend and tear the offending AC till its nothing more than shredded metal. Goes by a strong code of honor and moral ethics._

_Kanji. Aka Reaper_

_AC: Lockdown_

_This hotheaded young pilot rounds out this team of solid weapon users as the foil to Angel. Quick to anger and deviate from any plans laid beforehand his habit of 'raging' has become more of a hindrance than a help. Wielding a large scythe he's generally a team player until something doesn't go according to plan, then he loses his head and plunges into the fray unmindful of anything his teammates might be planning. The mid-weight AC he pilots is a perfect fit for him, as it incorporates strong arm parts that can wield the deadly sharp scythe to great effect. Even the paint scheme matches his personality…blazing red. If one can provoke this pilot into great depths of anger then the outcome will be most uncertain, however while clear-headed he is a wily, dirty fighter. _

"You know the plan," Ram said to his partners, "we need to get a reaction out of him to collect accurate data, so lets do this right the first time." On screen Reaper sat in his cockpit picking his nose, and waved a hand in acknowledgement, on another screen Angel looked disgustedly at Reaper, then said to Ram, "You know this isn't right…besides what if we do get a reaction what then? We record the data then just walk out of the arena?" She looked flustered, "You and I both know that's not going to happen." He looked at her resignedly, "We're Ravens, we take risks." Then ended the com-link and sighed deeply, in his mind he cursed Crest.

Ching The sound of the platform rising within the stadium peaked everyone's interest as they leaned forward to see who was coming up first. It was Nova. Just about every male within the arena erupted in hoarse cheers as the females also did so with decidedly less enthusiasm. Nova stood in the arena with the Triumvirate and looked them over once, as the announcer called out her name, "Ladies and gentleman, its my great pleasure to introduce to you…Nova and her AC Lilith!!" More man screams erupted from the stands, Nova looked around the arena and smirked inside the cockpit, 'Seems like I have a large fanbase…' she thought in amusement, 'time to show 'em something new.' Liliths arm extended straight up, palm facing upwards. The crowd was semi-confused, it was apparent that she had brought no weapon with her into the arena…but what was she doing now? Many thought this outloud, then a gentle hush grew over the spectators stands and a low whistling could be heard from the top of the arena. Many looked up and were surprised to see a large blue object falling from the stadium ceiling…but it was no random object. Inside her cockpit Nova thought to herself, '…Right on time.' The whistling became a deafening shriek and the large blue/silver looking object reached critical velocity, and with an earth shattering slam, fell right into the palm of Lilith. Nova began to twirl the lance above her head then slammed it into the ground beside her AC and stood with Liliths arms folded. Emblazoned on the side of the lance read the words _Azuel._ The announcer came on after everyone stopped cheering, "AC Lilith will be using her trademark melee weapon, the lance!! Also known personally as Azuel!!" Evangel, Sarah and Ammo all looked at each other wide-eyed, they had not known Nova for nearly as long as Blanc and Sikas and were surprised at the apparent ease with which she handled the lance. As Nova sat in Lilith under the arena lights soaking in all of the attention, she heard the arena platform once again shudder then begin to make its way up topside. 'Who's is gonna be first,' she thought interestedly.

As the platform rose and the black and green head made its first appearance, a low rumbling cheer went up from the stands. 'Sikas' thought Nova fondly. It was indeed Dragonuv, with what seemed like two sheaths attached to its legs. Dragonuv walked past Lilith to stand in the arena and then reached down to free the weapons housed inside his sheaths. Up in the stands the mechanics were beside themselves in glee, "Its probably the coolest weapon I've ever seen an AC use…honest to God I dunno how he can use those!' 'Man…better cover your ears…crowd reaction is gonna be huge!' They said to each other gleefully. Evangel and the rest listened to them closely for any hint of what it might be, but they gave no indication at all…they just wore those infuriatingly knowledgably grins.

Inside of the arena everyone watch with bated breath as Dragonuv reached into the sheaths…there was the sound of chains…Novas eyes widened in Lilith, 'No way…' And with a flourish Dragonuv whipped out his dual small swords and whipped them towards the Triumvirate in once quick motion. They were quick to react boosting left and right to order to avoid the deadly projectiles, however in mid air they were retracted by the chains that connected them to Dragonuv, he whipped them upwards and extended both of his arms so that the chains wrapped around the arms giving some protection, while the blade handles rested easily in the hands of Dragonuv. The announcer came on the overhead, "Wow!! Introducing AC Dragonuv!! Wielding the dual chain-linked swords Heaven and Earth!!" The crowd sat there, some uncontemplating of what they just witnessed, meanwhile in Dragonuv ,Sikas was feeling pretty good about his little display when Nova opened a com-link with him. "You're such a showoff! God!" she threw at him. He smirked back, "You're just jealous cause my entrance was better than yours!" She shot daggers at him with her eyes, "It wasn't better…more extravagant _maybe_ but not better…ass." They bickered back and forth for a few more minutes before they heard the platform move again once more. This time, it was Noir ascending to the arena, Blanc sat in the cockpit, semi-anxious about the match, but just as equally excited at the prospect of fighting a worthy team. Nova peered towards Blanc, then opened a com-link to Sikas, he opened his mouth to start fighting again but she cut him off and asked, "Whats that thing Noir is carrying?" Sikas didn't respond for awhile, then he said, "Just watch, its fairly impressive." Then cut the link. Noir walked slowly into the arena carefully carrying the bulky piece of tarp under its arm. Then Noir grasped the handle that was protruding from beneath it and whipped it upwards, effectively removing the tarp. The whole arena was dead silent, even the Triumvirate looked on in a mixture of fear and awe at the weapon in front of them. Completely covered in black, a startling contrast to the all white Noir, the enormous great sword was easily as tall as an AC, and emanated a sense of dread. The most terrifying thing about this weapon however, was its reverse side, while one side appeared to offer a clean cut, the other side was serrated so violently it look as if they were the teeth of some legendary monster. The announcer came on visibly shaken, "Uh. We have here Manche…manche.." Blanc cut in on the announcer, "Manche de l'épée du Noir Démon" The announcer resumed his introduction, "Y-y-yes, Introducing AC Noir!! Wielding…well in english.." The announcer paused, "Wielding The Sword Arm of the Black Demon…" The crowd was hushed, many speaking in whispers. "That's one freaky ass sword," Sarah commented loudly, eliciting some weak laughs from those around her. "Whats everyone so uptight about…its just a weapon," she said lightly. Evangel looked her in the eyes and said, "I'll tell you later hun…but for now I've gotta see this…" Then turned back to the arena, slightly miffed she leaned against him and stared out at Dragonuv, Lilith and Noir.

Getting back into the flow of things the announcer came over the speakers again, "So then the arena that has been chosen by random means for todays bout is…" The audience was dead silent, " Well folks…IT'S A TRENE CITY BATTLE!!' The crowd cheered and clapped for what seemed like ages. "Lets take her away!" The announcer shouted, clearly back in the jist of things. The holofaust glowed purple for a moment, then projected the Trene City environment into the arena. Skyscrapers reached up as far as the eye could see, there was a glowing skyline and the ocean not too far away. "Trene City folks, another crowd favorite, but a definite toughie for this melee match about to take place! Alright then, you know the rules combatants! Go at the siren!!" The crowd yelled in anticipation.

The siren sounded.

Dragonuv immediately boosted upwards to the top of a skyscraper to survey the scene below, while Lilith hid below him at the bottom of the building. Noir just stood in the same spot, the Sword Arm hoisted over one shoulder. Snickt Noir boosted forwards quickly as a scythe crashed down and tore up the ground where he was standing moments ago, and with that the battle had finally begun. Centaur was boosting around to get into the ideal position to attack Dragonuv, then finally got fed up and began to smash the building that Dragonuv was perched on to pieces. The warhammer crushed through the stone and cement with ease causing the building to collaspse in on itself. Dragonuv was already airborne while this was happening and whipped the two swords into the ground below on opposite sides of Centaur. Then with the leverage from the chains and the boosters pulled himself at an insane rate towards the ground, looking to effectively retire Centaur out of the battle immediately, it almost would have worked as Centaur was vulnerable, however Dragonuv changed course just in time as a scythe flew through the air where it had been seconds ago and lodged itself in the building behind. Lockdown raced over to grab the scythe when Lilith appeared from behind and brought Azuel crashing down upon Lockdown's back. Nova twirled the lance several times and then made as if to impale Lockdown through the core as it struggled to regain balance. A warning on her computer prompted her to duck and overboost left, which she did as a pair of claws skewered the air. By this time Lockdown had regained his weapon and alongside Foxeye were advancing upon Lilith who brandished Azuel violently several times in an attempt to keep them occupied for what was coming. A black shadow was cast over all three AC's as Noir rushed down towards them all. Nova quickly piloted Lilith backwards out of the shadow as did Foxeye and Lockdown unfortunately, and Noir pulverized the ground the were standing on previously, throwing debris everywhere, and inadvertently throwing up a dustcloud. Blanc got on com-link, "If you're inside that dustcloud I threw up you have exactly…3 secs to duck." Then clicked off, Nova's eyes widened as what seemed like a shadow pierced the dustcloud in a straight line. Lilith fell forward to the ground as the shadow passed straight over and connected with Lockdown who hadn't been quick enough to evade. He did have enough time however to put up his scythe to block, negating the damage greatly, yet the blow from Noir was so strong that it sent him skidding into the nearest building. As Foxeye regrouped with Centaur and Lockdown who was clambering out of the rubble. They again charged as a team, Foxeye went straight for Nova, who sitting in her cockpit muttered the words, "Bring it bitch…", and raised her lance before running straight towards her. Meanwhile Dragonuv, was avoiding the powerful blows of centaur with ease, and it was apparent that the slowly AC pilot was become frustrated. Suddenly Dragonuv struck out, burying one of the swords hilt deep into one of the legs of Centaur, the leg buckled but was far from incapacitated, as Centaur took the opportunity to club Dragonuv across the city and into another one of the numerous buildings that littered the area. Nova, meanwhile, was dealing with Foxeyes penchant for quick attacks, and growing increasingly bored as well as frustrated with the attacks being made. Nova grit her teeth in suppressed rage, and charged straight at Foxeye. The AC dodged her charge and cut alongside Liliths arm, then stood there patiently once more, as if mocking Nova. "That's it," said an angry Nova. Who with a flick of Azuel, extended it to its full length. Foxeye seemed temporarily baffled by this apparent ace hidden up Nova's sleeved, but regained her composure quickly and awaited the imminent attack. Liliths core began to glow as Nova transferred 50 AC power to her boosters, which were now open and glowing with barely suppressed energy. Inside the cockpit onscreen the overboost limit had been manually removed by Nova herself, who smiled grimly as she finalized the action. Lilith suddenly rocketed forward lance extended in front of her, Foxeye made as if to dodge to the left but Nova would have none of that. "Not this time bitch!" she cried out, as she adjusted the boosters a fraction of an inch and collided with Foxeye, effective skewering her with Azuel, just below her core. She cut the boosters immediately and was whipped forward at the sudden stop. However, it was much worse for Foxeye who went careening out of control and slammed through 4 buildings consecutively. Noir who had been fighting Lockdown the entire time, was pleased to see with what ease Nova took down Foxeye, he then refocused on his target. In no time at all it was apparent that Lockdown was about to go into a rage, his attacks had been getting much stronger but also less accurate, as Noir dodged and flew out of range of his attacks, not even using the Sword Arm to attack, just defend.

"Do it now. Commence Operation Reminiscence." Said Ram over com-link to his teammates.

"Roger that," said a severely shaken Angel. No response from Reaper. 'Shit,' thought Ram, 'he's that pissed already?' "Reaper, do you copy, missions starting now do you understand. NOW."

'Fine…can't wait to see what this guy can actually…just dodges like a fucking pussy all day…," he muttered sulkily.

Needless to say Blanc was a little surprised when Lockdown, Centaur and Foxeye regrouped together once more. As Dragonuv pulled himself from the building wreckage, he opened a com-link, "That fucker hits hard bro, but no worries I'm about to…what are they doing..?" he asked in mild curiousity. "I dunno…", said Blanc. 'But I have a bad feeling about this,' he thought to himself. In a flash, the Triumvirate activated their boosters and rushed straight at Blanc who was caught completely offguard, "Huh..?! What!!…" then static, Dragonuv and Lilith both rushed to intervene and Noir was pounded into submission by all three enemy AC's. Up in the stands, the crowd which had been watching in glee, began to boo and hiss at the bad sportsmanship going on in the arena. Evangel frowned deeply, and the mechanics were wincing with each blow to Noir, even Sarah looked slightly worried, "He's an amazing pilot and everything but…how long can one man take a beating like that…" she wondered outloud. How long indeed. Everytime Lilith and Dragonuv attempted to get near to the fallen Noir they were met with stiff resistance by Foxeye, who seemed to redouble her efforts against Lilith and Lockdown, who was mocking Sikas and Nova through the encounter. All the while Centaur brought the hammer down again and again upon Noir. The Sword Arm lay beside Noir, untouched and utterly useless at the moment. Dragonuv finally made its move boosting straight up to the deadly scythe of Lockdown and whipping a chain around its weapon, then throwing the second chain linked sword and using the leverage from the ground yanked the scythe out of his arms, meanwhile Lilith was easily keeping Foxeye at bay with her superior range. Foxeye made as if to jump onto Lilith, claws extended, as Nova whispered within her cockpit, "Gotcha." With a skill that made the crowd sigh in awe, Nova used her extensions to quickly boost to the left of Foxeye and entrap her hands within her trident like lance, and then twisted it violently, tearing the hands off of Foxeye, who was rendered useless.

Inside of Noir, Blanc could only stare up at centaur's head as it rammed its mighty warhammer down upon it. "Its…it's you…" Blanc said weakly as he reached his hand inside up to point towards Centaur…'The same head…it has the same red eye…the one that haunts my dreams, and stole my family…the one…the one…' he thought incoherently. Dimly he was aware of himself screaming in rage, but then that all faded away, and mercifully instinct took over from that point.

Ram was becoming bored of this now, where was this super AC pilot he had heard so much about? 'Fuck it,' he thought, 'I'll end this now…the boredom is killing me.' He brought the hammer up for a final blow then noticed a slight change in Noirs demeanour…it seemed more foreboding than before. He chalked that up to his overactive imagination then brought the hammer down as hard as he could.

Up in the stands everyone was silent. Sarah was beside herself in tears, "Why don't they stop it, he's had enough…" she cried. Evangel held her…then it clicked. "Oh shit." He said calmly. She looked up confused. "They're not coming out of there alive…"he said softly. She looked down in alarm, then back up at him, "What do yo-" At the look on his face, she shuddered then continued to watch.

CLANG The sound of metal on metal reverberated throughout the stadium. Noir hand was raised, and holding the hammer at bay. Inside of Centaur Rams eyes widened, as he tried to force the hammer down even further, but it would not budge. It was like it was trying to push against the earth itself. While holding onto the hammer Noir slowly stood up, and shoved the hammer away in one fluid motion. Centaurs arms were stretched to the limit at this seemingly simple shove. 'What the hell have we gotten ourselves into,' thought Ram in fear, as Noir strode over to the Sword Arm and hefted it up. Every AC within the arena had frozen at this strange turn of events. Sikas opened a link to Nova, "Run. Get away as far as you can. I'll explain later." Then he shut it off and overboosted away. Nova didn't completely understand what was going on, but when Sikas was that serious it had to be some serious shit, she thought to herself. And with one last look at Noir surrounded by the three AC's she boosted away.

The sound of a booster could be heard from behind Noir and Foxeye, who still wasn't ready to quit launched a kick at Noir, Noirs head swivelled to the left, and he boosted to the left bringing the Sword Arm to bear and with one fluid motion slicing Foxeye in half from the waist down. Just below the cockpit. Foxeyes torso went skidding across the rubble and came to a rest beside a building. Snickt The now familiar sound of the scythe being opened assailed Noirs senses as Lockdown charged straight towards him alongside Centaur, with its hammer bared. With one sweep of the Sword Arm, Noir knocked them away and sliced through half a dozen buildings surrounding their location, all collapsed throwing up yet another dustcloud. Lockdown in an attempt to get free of the visual impediment boosted straight up and out of the dustcloud, only to be confronted by a waiting Noir. "I don't care how tough you think you are…I WON'T LOSE TO YOU!" Reaper shrieked as he readied his scythe once more and charged at Noir again. It was his fatal mistake. Noir boosted in close, to Reapers horror, and grabbed the scythe, Noir embedded the scythe through the core of Lockdown and with no core power, it couldn't sustain its boosters, which cut out shortly. As Lockdown fell towards the ground, Noir hovered above him like some avenging angel and then plunged down with him, planting the serrated edge of the Sword Arm through the top of the AC's head. Lockdown landed on its feet, and the strength of the impact, forced the Sword Arm all the way down through the cockpit, effectively killing Reaper, and straight down between its legs. Noir yanked the ebony sword from the ruins of Lockdown as it exploded, covering the battlefield in flames. "REAPERRR!!" Ram screamed out in agony. And then rushed towards Noir, who looked over almost casually and sidestepped the rush crouched low and extended that sword of death once more, severing all four legs. As Noir stood, Centaur crashed and skidded with nothing to support it, crawled and twitched pathetically, as Noir went over to finish off the remains of Foxeye.

Angel wiped the blood from her eyes, 'No…this isn't right, what have we awakened.' She thought. She checked her systems, "Computer..cough status?" The computer answered groggily, "Core power at 10, legs non functional, arm power at 7, reserve power being depleted at an….exponential rate, head power at 16, recommend forfeiting or surrendering this battle." She chuckled darkly at that last statement, spitting up blood in the process, 'No…theres no going back after this, we awoke this…we will pay for it,' she thought bravely. She adjusted her optics…there was fire everywhere, 'How'd that get there?' she thought. She looked over and saw the split ruined form of Lockdown and the legless barely functioning form of Centaur. Then she saw the battle-scarred Noir standing in front of her 'Oh God…'she thought frantically, 'Oh God, Oh God, Oh God.' Then she did what any normal person in such a situation would do. She cried.

Noir stood in front of Foxeye, and stared down unwaveringly at it. People in the crowd were crying, some were just frozen in shock others were just watching the gruesome spectacle in silence. Noir raised the Sword Arm and readied the final blow, he brought down the blade in an arc…and sliced straight through Centaur. At the last minute, Ram had sent all reserve energy towards boosters in an attempt to save his comrade. Angel screamed through the comlink, "RAM!! NOO!!" Inside the cockpit that was slowly filling with flames and molten metal, covered in blood Ram smiled a simple smile, and whispered the words, "Love you babe.." over the com-link before he was crushed to death by the intense pressure of the Sword Arm. Angels heart-wrenching sobs could be heard over the intercom as the last of her team was decimated by the apparently maddened Blanc in Noir. The sobs permeated through the thick fog that clouded Blancs mind…and slowly, like a man coming out of a dream, he awoke to himself standing in the middle of AC's wreckages and the soft cries of a woman in torment.

"What…what have I done?" he asked sorrowfully, "WHAT HAVE I DONE?!"

The only answer he got was Angels cries of despair.

_To be continued_


End file.
